JC-NRLF 


%afce  EngU&b  Classics 
MILTON'S 

MINOR  POEMS 

L' ALLEGRO,  IL  PENSEROSO,  COMUS, 
AND  LYCIDAS 


EDITED  FOR  SCHOOL  USB 
BY 

WILLIAM  ALLAN  NEILSON,  M.  A.,  Ph.  D< 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


CHICAGO 
8COTT,  FORESMAN  AND  C01VIPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1900,  BY 
SCOTT,   FORESMAN  AND  COMPANY 


PR'NTERS   AND    BINDERS,   CHICAGO. 


OF   THE 

'      v         M     '_ 


PREFACE 

In  the  present  edition  the  main  endeavor  ht»* 
been  to  provide  an  apparatus  that  should  ensure 
the  complete  intelligibility  of  the  four  poems  form- 
ing the  text,  and  an  understanding  of  the  circum- 
stances in  which  they  were  written.  This  has 
made  necessary  not  only  an  outline  of  the  poet's 
life,  but  also  a  sketch  of  some  of  the  main  tenden- 
cies in  English  politics,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  during 
his  youth.  Without  some  such  view,  it  is  impos- 
sible for  the  student  to  grasp  the  significance  of 
the  political  allusions  in  Lycidas,  while  the  other 
three  poems  all  gain  immensely  in  interest  when 
it  is  seen  how  they  are  related  to  the  Puritanism 
of  which  the  poetry  of  Milton  is  the  supreme 
literary  expression. 

In  addition  to  the  biographical  and  historical 
material,  a  concise  statement  is  given  of  what  is 
known  of  the  sources  of  the  poems.  Teachers 
using  the  book  have  a  right  to  demand  that  this 
should  be  supplied,  yet  it  is  by  no  means  to  be 
understood  that  all  students  should  be  required  to 
study  it  in  detail.  It  is  doubtful,  indeed,  whether 
the  minds  of  young  students  should  be  burdened 
by  more  than  the  general  bearing  of  such  a  state- 
ment of  Milton's  real  or  supposed  debt  to  previous 

writers.      More  important,  because  more  vital  to 
* 

204509 


6  PREFACE 

the  understanding  of  literary  history,  is  the  at- 
tempt to  outline  the  development  of  such  forms  as 
the  pastoral  elegy  and  the  masque  previous  to 
their  being  used  by  Milton. 

The  work  of  aesthetic  interpretation  has  been 
left  almost  entirely  to  the  teacher,  but  a  few 
suggestions  may  be  made.  An  unusually  good 
opportunity  for  bringing  out  the  beauty  of  coher- 
ent structure  in  short  poems  is  afforded  by  the 
present  texts.  The  plan  of  L  'Allegro  and  II  Pense- 
roso,  which  is  roughly  traced  in  the  Introduction, 
should  be  worked  out  in  detail  by  the  student. 
Lycidas  will  be  grasped  in  a  much  more  satisfac- 
tory way  if  it  is  clearly  brought  out  in  class  that 
there  is  a  regular  sequence  of  parts  in  the  elegy, 
interrupted  by  digressions.  On  the  basis  of  the 
analysis  of  the  masque  elements  in  Comus  which 
will  be  found  on  pp.  63-8,  the  teacher  may  enlarge 
on  the  characteristically  Miltonic  elements  in  the 
poem. 

The  main  facts  in  connection  with  the  versifica- 
tion of  the  poems  have  been  stated  as  simply  as 
possible.  The  artistic  value  of  the  lines,  however, 
will  be  best  imparted  viva  voce,  and  here  again  the 
opportunity  is  exceptional.  (The  alternating  long 
and  short  lines  at  the  beginning  of  Ly Allegro  and 
II  Penseroso,  and  the  short,  rapid  measure  of  the 
main  parts  of  these  poems  |Khe  blank  verse  and  the 
lyrical  passages  in  Comush  and*  the  seeming  irregu- 
larity in  the  arrangement  of  rhymes  in  Lycidas, -all 


PREFACE  7 

afford  admirable  examples  of  the  use  a  great  poet 
makes  of  metrical  devices,  and  should  give  rise  to 
stimulating  discussions.  Attention  should  be  drawn 
also  to  Milton 's  double  epithets,  and  the  question 
of  the  justification  of  his  coinages  raised.  The  first 
two  poems  consist  of  series  of  pictures,  and  the 
student  should  be  induced  to  test  the  vividness  of 
these,  one  by  one,  by  attempting  to  visualize  them. 
The  characteristic  ethical  elements  which  appear 
in  all  Milton 's  productions  might  also  be  educed 
and  illustrated  by  reference  to  his  own  life. 

The  great  mine  of  information  on  the  life  and 
times  of  Milton  is  Professor  David  Masson  's  mag- 
nificent work,  The  Life  of  John  Milton,  narrated  in 
connection  with  the  political,  ecclesiastical,  and  literary 
history  of  his  time  (6  vols.,  Macmillan  &  Co.,  new 
ed.,  Lond.,  1881-94).  For  those  to  whom  this  is  not 
accessible,  or  who  desire  something  on  a  smaller 
scale,  Mark  Pattison  's  Milton  in  the  English  Men 
of  Letters  series,  Dr.  Garnett  's  in  the  Great  Writers 
series,  and  the  recent  volumes  on  Milton  by  Pro- 
fessor Trent  (Macmillan,  N.  Y.,  1899)  and  Professor 
Raleigh  (Putnam,  N.  Y.,  1900)  may  be  mentioned. 
Dr.  Garnett 's  book  contains  an  excellent  bibli- 
ography. Of  annotated  editions  of  Milton 's  poems 
the  most  elaborate  is  again  Masson 's  (2d  ed.,  3  vols., 
Macmillan,  Lond.,  1894).  Verity 's  editions  (Cam- 
bridge University  Press)  are  very  full  and  scholarly, 
and  Professor  Trent's  edition  of  the  poems  con- 
tained in  the  present  volume  (Longmans,  1898)  has 


8  PREFACE 

a  number  of  suggestive  interpretative  notes. 
Professor  Corson  has  recently  published  an  Intro* 
duction  to  Milton  which  conveniently  brings  to- 
gether the  more  important  autobiographical  pas- 
sages from  the  prose  works,  but  its  value  is  lessened 
by  the  lack  of  exact  references  to  the  sources  of 
the  texts  quoted.  Discussions  of  Milton 's  versi- 
fication will  be  found  in  the  third  volume  of 
Masson  's  large  edition  of  the  poems,  and  in  Milton 's 
Prosody  by  Robert  Bridges  (Clarendon  Press).  It 
is,  perhaps,  unnecessary  to  refer  to  the  well  known 
essays  on  Milton  by  Macaulay  and  Lowell. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  introduction  and  notes 
I  have  freely  consulted  the  work  of  previous 
editors,  especially  Masson,  Verity,  Browne,  and 
Trent,  and  detailed  acknowledgment  of  obligations 
to  these  and  others  will  be  found  in  the  appropri- 
ate places.  To  Professor  Masson,  as  author  of  the 
Life  of  Milton,  every  modern  student  of  Milton  owes 
an  immense  debt,  and  I  have  to  add  to  this  general 
recognition  that  of  the  more  personal  obligation 
which  a  student  owes  to  an  inspiring  teacher.  I  also 
wish  to  thank,  for  suggestions  in  connection  with 
the  treatment  of  the  masque,  my  friends  Dr.  A.  H. 
Thorndike  of  Western  Reserve  University,  and  Dr. 
John  Lester,  recently  of  Harvard,  and,  for  helpful 
criticisms  throughout,  Mr.  L.  T.  Damon  of  thie 
University  of  Chicago. 

HARVARD  UNIVERSITY,  September,  1900. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE       •       ..-....       -5 
INTRODUCTION 

I.    England  in  Milton's  Youth        •        •        •  11 

II.    The  Life  of  Milton 20 

III.  U  Allegro  and  II  Penseroso  •  33 

IV.  Comus 35 

V.     Lycidas 43 

VI.    Milton's  Puritanism 47 

TEXT       .........  53 

NOTES          ....•••-.  115 

WORD  INDEX         • 157 


INTRODUCTION 


I.  ENGLAND  IN  MILTON  's  YOUTH 
Among  English  men  of  letters  there  is  none 
whose  life  andjvork  stand  in  more  intimate  rela- 
tiozL_with  the  history  of  his  times  than  those  of 
Milton.  Not  only  was  he  for  a  long  period  im- 
mersed in  political  controversy  and  public  busi- 
ness, but  there  are  few  of  his  important  works 
which  do  not  become  more  significant  in  the  light 
of  contemporary  events,  and  in  turn  help  the 
understanding  of  these  events  themselves.  Both 
by  temperament  and  by  circumstances  he  was 
destined  10  be  much  more  than  an  interested  on- 
looker during  the  momentous  struggles  which  had 
begun  to  trouble  the  peace  of  England  at  the  time 
he  reached  manhood;  and  it  is  by  no  accident  that 
his  most  adequate  biography  is  at  the  same  time 
a  history  of  his  country  for  three-quarters  of  a 
century. 

At  the  time  of  Milton's  birth  in  1608,  England 
was  passing  through  a  period  of  transition.  Much 
of  thaj^remarkablevigor  and  abundance  of  life 
whichjiad  characterized  the  age  of  ElizabeffT  still 
remained;  and  the  drama,  the  most  typical  ex- 
pf  ession  of  that  age  in  literature,  had  hardly  begun 


It'  INTRODUCTION 

to  decline.  Yet,  with  the  change  of  dynasty  at 
the  union  of  the  crowns  of  England  and  Scotland 
in  1603,  there  had  appeared  a  tendency  to  depart 
•fromthg^  policy^  of  toleration  which  HadTSade 
possible  the  united  patriotism  of  the  preceding 
reign.  Thenew  Kinj^James  I.,  had  definite  pref- 
erences in  Religious  matters^ and  insisted  on  making 
tEem  felt.  Lines  of  cleavage1,  which  had  before 
been  only  vaguely  traceable,  broadened  into  divid- 
ing gulfs,  ai\d  the  religious  world  began  more  and 
morg_to  break  up  into  sects  and  parties.  The 
antagonisms  between  these,  already  in  many  cases 
present  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  were 
strengthened  when,  in  the  time  of  Charles  I., 
political  issues  were  added  to  ecclesiastical;  and 
the  hostilityHand  intolerance  grew  more  and  more 
acute,  until  in  1642  difference  of  opinion  culmi- 
nated inlhe  horrors  o£  civil  war. 

^Theoretically,  all  Englishmen^wg™  Tne™^w  of 
theTStablished  Church.  Eutin  practice  there 
were  two  important  groups  outside  the  Anglican 
fold,  the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Protestant 
Separatists^  Under  Elizabeth,  the  persecution  of 
the  Roman  Catholics  had  varied  in  intensity 
according  to  the  requirements  of  the  political 
situation.  Thus,  when  a  Catholic  power  like  Spain 
threatened  the  national  safety,  considerable  rigor 
was  used  to  prevent  Catholic  risings  at  home. 
Similarly,  in  the  reign  of  James,  the  alarm  caused 


ENGLAND  IN  MILTON'S  YOUTH  13 

by  the  Gunpowder  Plot  in  1605  led  to  the  exercise 
of  oppressive  measures  against  the  same  religion. 
On  the  other  hand,  during  the  negotiations  with 
Spain  for  a  marriage  between  the  Infanta  and 
Prince  Charles  (1617-1623),  these  measures  were 
naturally  relaxed;  and  this  relaxation  continued 
after  1624,  when  Charles  married  Henrietta  Maria 
of  France,  who  was,  like  the  Infanta,  a  Catholic. 
Queen  Henrietta's  influence  in  this  direction 
remained  operative  throughout  her  husband's 
reign,  and  had  the  additional  effect  of  increasing 
the  suspicion  with  which  the  Puritans  regarded 
the  ecclesiastical  policy  of  the  court  party. 

At  the  opposite  extreme  from  the  Roman 
Catholic  dissenters  were  the  Protestant  Separatists, 
who  had  left  the  church  of  their  own  accord. 
Many  of  them  emigrated  to  Holland,  and,  later, 
to  America,  while  others,  chiefly  Independents  and 
Baptists,  attempted,  in  defiance  of  the  law,  to 
follow  their  own  modes  of  worship  in  .secret. 
These  last  sects  were,  numerically,  unimportant. 

Inside  the  Church  there  were 

— ~~~ 

jhe  Prelatists  and  the  Puritans.  The  Prelatists 
Vere  those  who  were  on  the  whole  satisfied  with 
the  established  Episcopacy;  and  at  the  accession 
oTTames"  I.  they  probably  numbered  about  nine- 
tenths  of  the  whole  Church.  The  attitude  of  the 
Puritans  at  that  time  is  defined  by  a  petition 
which  they~presented  to  James  shortly  after" his 


14  INTRODUCTION 

arrival  in  England.  In  this  document  they  ob- 
jected to  certain  administrative  abuses,  sucl^  as 
thejnefficienqLof  some  of  the  nlergy^an^the  hold- 
ingjrf  church  livings  by  absentees,  whether  clerical 
qr^lay,  yho  drew  a  large  part  of  the  tithes  and 
hired  a  vicar  on_a_small  salary  to  care  for  the 
parish.  More  significant  was  their  request  to  be 
relie^edJrom  compulsor^^arjidpaition  in  certain 
of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church^  such  as  the 
wearing  of  surplices^Jhe  u^eof_Jhe_^r^sshi 
h^ptisrg  the  ^oEJjrvation  of  holy  days  (except 
Saobath/which  they  wished  to  have  observed 
more  strictly),  and  bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus. 
The  doctrinal  -differences  which  became  so  im- 
portant later  were  not  mentioned. 

The  Puritans  gained  less  than  nothing  by  their 
petition.  The  next  Convocation  of  the  Clergy 
(1603,  4)  passed  a  number  of  canons  reaffirming 
the  necessity  of  the  ritual  to  which  objection  had 
been  made,  and  denying  the  right  to  dissent.  The 
laws  against  Nonconformists  were  more  strictly 
enforced,  and  many  were  imprisoned  or  banished. 
The  effect  on  the  Puritans  was  seen  in  the  appear- 
ance of  numerous  pamphlets,  printed  hi  Holland 
or  secretly  in  England,  protesting  against  the 
action  of  the  Prelatists,  and  in  some  cases  arguing 
for  Independency  or  Presbyjterianism. 

On  the  appointment  .of  a  Low  Church  Arch- 
bishop in  1611,  the  struggle  slackened  somewhat; 


ENGLAND  IN  MILTON'S  YOUTH  15 

but  about  1619  a  new  element  of  great  importance 
was  introduced.  This  was  the  appearance  of  what 
was  called  Arminianism,  a  doctrinal  opposition  to 
the  Calvinistic  beliefs  that  salvation  was  possible 
only  for  those  predestined  to  it,  and  that  those 
who  were  so  elected  by  God  to  be  saved  were 
incapable  of  resisting  His  grace.  The  situation 
was  complicated  for  James,  who  was  himself  a 
Calvinist,  by  the  fact  that  the  men  of  Arminian 
tendencies  were  those  who  were  most  zealous  in  the 
support  of  Prelacy  and  the  royal  prerogative.  He 
attempted  to  solve  the  difficulty  by  issuing  Direc- 
tions to  Preachers,  in  which  he  forbade  any  clergy- 
man below  the  degree  of  Dean  to  preach  on  the 
disputed  questions  at  all;  but,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  this  interference  with  the  liberty  of 
discussion  on  both  sides  did  little  to  reassure  the 
Puritans,  who  saw  in  the  Arminianism  of  the 
Prelatists  only  one  more  indication  of  their  lean- 
ings towards  Rome.  In  fact,  many  who  had 
taken  no  part  with  the  Puritans  in  the  agitation 
against  ceremonial  were  forced  to  join  them  by 
the  appearance  of  this  new  theological  issue. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  there  stepped  into 
the  front  rank  among  the  leaders  in  church  and 
state,  a  man  who  in  a  few  years  became,  by  force  of 
the  definiteness  of  his  views  and  the  restlessness  of 
his  energy,  the  chief  agent  in  hurrying  the  nation 
towards  the  terrible  conflict  that  lay  before  it. 


16  INTRODUCTION 

William  Laud  was  a  man  of  few  aims.  He  believed 
in  the  strictest  uniformity  in  worship,  and  was 
willing  to  resort  to  coercion  to  bring  it  about.  He 
was  "  in  favor  of  a  ceremonial  of  worship  in  which 
advantage  should  be  taken  of  every  external  aid 
of  architecture,  decoration,  furniture,  gesture,  or 
costume,  either  actually  at  the  time  allowed  in  the 
Church  of  England,  or  for  which  there  was  good 
precedent  in  more  ancient  ritual."1  He  "believed 
in  the  'divine  Apostolic  right'  of  Episcopacy,  and 
. . .  .therefore,  could  not  recognize  as  a  true  portion 
of  the  Catholic  Church  of  Christ  any  community 
or  set  of  men  who  pretended  to  have  emancipated 
themselves  from  Bishops."1  Thus  he  regarded  the 
members  of  the  Church  of  Rome  as  belonging  to  a 
true  Church,  but  did  not  so  regard  the  Independ- 
ents and  Presbyterians.  On  the  doctrine  of 
Election  he  was  anti-Calvinist,  and  he  was  a  strong 
upholder  of  the  royal  prerogative  in  church  and 
state. 

^When  Charles  I.  ascended  the  throne  iiLl625,  he 
held  his  father's  beliefs  concerning  the  supremacy 
of  the  crown,  but  in  theqlogy_was  inclined  to  the 
ASaJnianisnTof  Laud.  The  history  of  his  reign  is 
the  history,  of  the  attempt  to  force  these  opinions 
upon  the  people  of  the  United  Kingdom.  When 
his  first  Parliament  met,  it  insisted  on  prosecuting 
the  King's  chaplain  for  Arminianism,  and  showed 

1  Masson's  Life  of  Hilton,  ed.  1881,  vol.  I,  p,  362. 


ENGLAND  IN  MILTON'S  YOUTH  17 

its  distrust  of  the  policy  and  advisers  of  the  crown 
by  restricting  the  usual  grants  of  money.  Charles 
retaliated  by  dissolving  the  Parliament.  The  sec- 
ond Parliament  followed  its  predecessors  in  its 
protests  against  Arminianism  and  illegal  taxation, 
and  met  a  similar  fate.  Then  for  nearly  two  years 
(June,  1 626-— March,  1628)  Charles  governed  with- 
out a  Parliament,  and  raised  money  by  such  illegal 
means  as  forced  I5ans^  Meanwhile,  the  parly  ol 
La;ud  became  more  open  and  vigorous  in  its  ad- 
vocacy of  the  King's  supremacy,  and  of  the  doc- 
trine that  resistance  to  his  will  was  sacrilege.  The 
phrase  "absolute  monarchy,"  which  in  the  time  of 
the  Tudors  was  used  to  describe  a  government  free 
from  foreign  or  Papal  interference,  had  been  inter- 
preted by  James  I.  in  the  sense  of  a  monarchy  un- 
restrained by  law  or  the  will  of  the  people,1  and 
the  doctrine  thus  implied  became  a  Watchword  of 
the  Royalist  party.  Forced  by  lack  of  money, 
the  King  called  a  third  Parliament,  only  to  be  met 
once  more  with  vehement  protests  against  civil 
and  religious  grievances.  He  yielded,  obtained  a 
grant  of  subsidies,  and  prorogued  Parliament.  But 
the  value  of  his  supposed  concessions  soon  ap- 
peared. Almost  at  once  he  relapsed  into  his 
previous  arbitrary  methods;  Laud  and  other  Ar- 
minians  were  promoted,  and  illegal  taxation  was 

1  See  Green's  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Lond. , 
1889,  chap,  viii.,  sec.  II,  p.  478. 


\8  INTRODUCTION 

again  exacted.  When  this  Parliament  re-assem- 
bled in  the  beginning  of  the  following  year  (1629), 
the  old  discussions  were  renewed  with  greater 
fervor  than  ever.  Laud  had  used  the  interval  to 
issue  a  Declaration,  to  be  prefixed  to  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles,1  reaffirming  the  King's  supremacy 
in  the  Church,  and  forbidding  discussion  of  the 
Articles.  This  Declaration  became  the  main  object 
of  attack,  but  the  King  stood  firm,  the  Parliament 
was  dissolved,  and  Charles  began  a  period  of  per- 
sonal government  which  lasted  for  eleven  years 
(1629-1640).  ' 

The  period  during  which  Charles  ruled  without 
a  Parliament  was  marked  by  a  development  of  the 
policy  which  Laud,  soon  to  become  Archbishop, 
had  already  marked  out.  In  religious  affairs, 
there  was  an  increase  in  the  restrictions  on 
freedom  of  discussion  by  the  clergy,  and  the  new 
Primate's  favorite  ideas  in  matters  of  worship  and 
discipline  were  enforced  by  his  control  of  Church 
legislation,  patronage,  and  organization.  Con- 
venient instruments  of  coercion  were  found  in  the 
already  existing  Courts  of  Star  Chamber  and  of 
High  Commission,  which  were  used  with  unsparing 
severity  in  the  punishment  and  suppression  of 
Separatists  outside  the  Church,  and  Puritans 

1  These  articles  of  religion,  originally  drawn  up  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  were,  with  little  change,  re- 
affirmed at  the  beginning  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  and  still 
\emain  the  official  statement  of  Anglican  belief. 


OF 

FO 
ENGLAND  IN  MILTON'S  YOUTH  19 

within.  Men  guilty  of  preaching  or  writing 
against  Laudian  principles  were  fined,  imprisoned, 
and  mutilated  in  the  pillory;  and  the  persecutions 
were  carried  even  into  the  Universities.  In  secular 
politics,  the  chief  problem  was  the  raising  of  money, 
and  resort  was  had  to  the  sale  of  monopolies  in 
almost  all  the  articles  of  common  consumption,  to 
the  revival  of  obsolete  taxes,  to  fines  for  a  multi- 
tude of  petty  offenses,  to  the  sale  of  indulgences  to 
Catholics  who  wished  to  practice  their  own  religion, 
and,  finally,  to  Ship-money.  This  last  was  an  old 
tax,  instituted  before  England  had  a  permanent 
navy,  to  provide  money  for  ships  to  defend  the 
coast  towns.  It  was  now  revived,  and  levied,  not 
only  on  the  seaboard  as  before,  but  over  the 
whole  country;  and  it  was  on  the  refusal  of  John 
Hampden  to  pay  this  tax  that  the  spirit  of  the 
country  at  last  rose  to  resist.  Meanwhile,  Charles 
and  Laud  had  been  attempting  to  impose  Episco- 
pacy on  Presbyterian  Scotland,  but  the  task  was 
beyond  their  power,  and  the  Scots  were  already 
in  armed  rebellion. 

Nearly  four  years  were  to  pass  before  the  Civil 
War  in  England  actually  broke  out;  but  it  was 
the  rumor  of  these  events  of  the  year  1638,  reaching 
Milton  in  Italy,  which  determined  him  to  return  to 
bear  his  share  in  his  country's  struggle  for  freedom, 
and  which  brought  to  a  close  the  period  of  his  life 
that  includes  those  of  his  writings  with  which 
we  are  more  immediately  concerned. 


20  INTRODUCTION 

II.    THE  LIFE  OF  MILTON 

The  intimate  relation  between  the  writings  of 
Milton  and  the  history  of  his  times,  to  which  allu- 
sion has  been  made,  is  symbolized  by  the  coinci- 
dence of  the  periods  into  which  his  life  naturally 
falls  with  the  periods  into  which  English  history 
in  the  seventeenth  century  divides  itself.  The 
first  of  these  extends  from  Milton 's  birth  to  his 
return  from  Italy,  and  corresponds  with  that  por- 
tion of  the  history  which  has  just  been  outlined. 
The  second  ends  with  his  retirement  into  private 
life  in  1660,  and  coincides  with  the  period  of  the 
Civil  War  and  the  Commonwealth.  The  third 
closes  with  his  death  in  1674,  and  falls  within  the 
period  of  the  Restoration. 

This  threefold  classification  applies  also  to  his 
literary  productions.  The  first  group  of  these,  in 
which  the  poems  in  this  volume  are  the  most  im- 
portant, belongs  to  the  period  before  1639;  the 
second,  consisting  chiefly  of  controversial  works  in 
prose,  to  the  period  between  1640  and  1660;  and 
the  third,  the  group  containing  the  two  great  epics 
and  Samson  Agonistes,  to  the  period  of  his  retire- 
ment. 

(a)     First  Period  (1608-1639) 

John  Milton  wras  born  in  Bread  Street,  London, 
on  the  ninth  of  December,  1608.  He  was  the  son 
of  John  Milton,  a  prosperous  scrivener  (i.  e.,  attor- 
ney and  law-stationer),  a  man  of  good  family  and 


THE  LIFE  OP  MILTON  21 

considerable  culture,  especially  devoted_jto  m^sic. 
In  the  education  ofthe  future  poet  the  elder 
Milton  was  exceptionally  generous.  From  child- 
hood-JijL  destined  him  for  the  Church,  and  his 
preparation  was  begun  at  home,  and  continued  at 
St.  Paul's  School  and  at  Cambridge.  We  have 
abundant  evidence  that  the  boy  \vas  from  the  first 
a  quick  and  diligent  student,  and  that  the  late 
study  to  which  he  was  addicted  from  childhood 
was  the  beginning  of  that  injury  to  his  eyes  which 
ended  in  blindness.  .He  entered  Christ's  College, 
-Cambridge,  in  1625,  took  Jbe-degggg  QJLSZ2L»  in 
Ol_A.  in  1632,  when  he  left-the  Uni- 


versity after  seven  years'  residence.  Like  several 
other  poets  who  have  brought  renown  to  Cam- 
bridge, Milton  was  severely  critical  of  his  Univer- 
sity. Yet  he  seems  to  have  been  highly  respected 
while  there,  both  for  the  purity  of  his  conduct  and 
the  brilliance  of  his  scholarship;  and  years  after- 
wards he  made  public  acknowledgment  of  "that 
more  than  ordinary  favour  and  respect,  which  I 
found  above  any  of  my  equals  at  the  hands  of 
those  courteous  and  learned  men,  the  fellows  of 
that  College  wherein  I  spent  some  years:  who  at 
my  parting  .  .  .  signified  many  ways  how  much 
better  it  would  content  them  that  I  would  stay."1 

1  Apology  for  Smectymnuus,  Milton's    Works,  ed.  Mit- 
ford,  vol.  Ill,  p.  266. 


22  INTRODUCTION 

Milton  left  Cambridge  for  his  father's  house  at 
Horton  in  Buckinghamshire  with  his  career  still 
unsettled.  It  has  been  mentioned  that  he  had 
been  intended  for  the  Church,  but  this  prospect 
he  had  given  up  before  he  took  his  Master's 
degree.  The  reasons  for  the  change  of  purpose  he 
has  himself  stated  in  no  uncertain  words.  "  Coming 
to  some  maturity  of  years,  and  perceiving  what 
tyranny  had  invaded  the  Church,  that  he  who 
would  take  orders  must  subscribe  slave,  and  take 
an  oath  withal,  ...  I  thought  it  better  to  prefer  a 
blameless  silence  before  the  sacred  office  of  speak- 
ing bought  and  begun  with  servitude  and  fore- 
swearing." 1  And  he  refers  to  having  been  "  Church- 
outed  by  the  Prelates" — a  phrase  which  finds 
sufficient  explanation  in  what  has  been  said  of  the 
policy  of  Laud. 

The  life  to  which  Milton  settled  down  at  Hor- 
ton was  one  of  quiet  but  persistent  study,  varied 
with  occasional  poetical  production.  Authorship^ 
indeed,  seems  to  have  taken  the  place  of  the  min- 
istry in  his  vague  plans  for  the  future,  though  the 
particular  form  it  was  to  take  was  long  undefined. 
Even  as  a  child  he  had  written  verses,  and  at  the 
University  he  had  produced,  besides  academic 
exercises  and  a  number  of., Latin  poems,  occasional 
poetical  effusions  in  English,  the  most  notable 
1  The  Eeasm  of  Church  Government  (1641),  Works,  vol. 

in,  p.  150. 


THE  LIFE  OF  MILTON  23 


Boe 


ing  the  Ode  on  the  Morning  of  Christ's  Nativity 
and  the  enthusiastic  Epitaph  on  Shakspere.  Among 
all  the  writings  of  that  period,  however,  the  most 
interesting  autobiographically  is  the  Sonnet  on  his 
Being  Arrived  at  the  Age  of  Twenty-three,  which  may 
be  quoted  here  to  show  how  he  anticipated  the 
criticisms  upon  his  apparent  lack  of  purpose  and 
achievement: 

How  soon  hath  Time,  the  subtle  thief  of  youth, 

Stolen  on  his  wing  my  three-and-twentieth  year! 

My  hasting  days  fly  on  with  full  career, 

But  my  lateWning  no  bud  or  blossom  shew'th 

Perhaps  my  semblanceT^ight  deceive  the  truth, 
That  Lto'  manhood  am  arrived  so  near; 
And^nward  ripeness  doth  much  less  appear, 
That  some  more  timely-happy  spirits  endu'th. 

Yet,  be  it  less  or  more,  or  soon  or  slow, 

It  shall  be  still  in  strictest  measure  even 
To  that  same  lot,  however  mean  or  high, 

Toward  which  Time  leads  me,  'and  the  will  of  Heaven. 
All  is,  if  I  have  grace  to  use  it  so, 
As  ever  in  my  great  Task-Master's  eye 

We  may  note  implied  here  (besides  the  con- 
sciousness that  he  might  seem  open  to  reproach) 
an^attitude__ofawaiting  without  impatien££-Jjie 
fulfilment  of  his~3estiny,  and  a  determination  that 
to  whatever  goal  he  might  ultimately  be  led, 
there  should  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  principles  by 
which  he  was  to  be  governed  on  his  road  thither. 
Both  things  were  profoundly  characteristic.  In 


24  INTRODUCTION 

his  own  ultimate  greatness  Milton  never  ceased  to 
believe:  yet  he  looked  forward  to  it  in  no  vain- 
glorious spirit,  but  with  a  legitimate  pride  in  the 
part  allotted  to  him  in  the  purposes  of  Providence- 
With  equal  certainty  did  he  hold  to  the  necessity 
of  personal  purity  and  integrity  in  the  man  who 
was  to  perform  noble  deeds,  whether  in  affairs  or 
in  literature.  The  man  who  "speaks  of  high 
matters/ '  he  insists,  must  live  temperately  and 
have  "a  youth  chaste  and  free  from  guilt,  and 
rigid  morals,  and  hands  without  stain."1  And 
again;  "  He  who  would  not  be  frustrate  of  his  hope 
to  write  well  hereafter  in  laudable  things,  ought 
himself  to  be  a  true  poem;  that  is,  a  composition, 
and  pattern  of  the  best  and  honour  ablest  things; 
not  presuming  to  sing  high  praises  of  heroic  men, 
or  famous  cities,  unless  he  have  in  himself  the 
experience  and  the  practice  of  all  that  which  is 
praiseworthy."2  Such  was  the  spirit  in  which 
Milton  prepared  himself  for  his  life-work. 

Among  the  results  of  the  years  spent  at  Horton 
between  1632  and  1638  were  a  Latin  poem,  Ad 
Patrem,  apparently  written  n  reply  to  some  mild 
remonstrance  from  his  father  on  his  giving  up  the 
prospect  of  a  regular  profession  in  favor  of  scholar- 
ship and  letters;  U  Allegro;  II  Penseroso;  Arcades 

1  Letter  to  Charles  Diodati. 

2  Apology  for  Smectymnuus,  Works,  ed.  Mitford,  vol. 
UI,  pp,  270,1. 


THE  LIFE  OF  MILTON  25 

(part  of  an  entertainment  given  in  honor  of  the 
Dowager  Countess  of  Derby);  Comus;  and  Lycidas. 
In  Milton's  days  and  for  long  afterwards,  no 
young  gentleman's  education  was  regarded  as 
complete  until  he  had  made  "  the  Grand  Tour  "  of 
the  continent.  It  was,  then,  in  accordance  with 
fashion,  as  well,  no  doubt,  as  with  his  own  taste, 
that  in  1638  Milton  set  out  on  a  journey  to  Italy,  f 
After  some  days  in  Paris,  he  passed  on  by  way  of 
Nice  to  Genoa,  Leghorn,  Pisa,  and  Florence,  in 
which  last  city  he  spent  about  two  months  in  the 
society  of  wits  and  men  of  letters.  He  seems  to 
have  been  received  with  marked  courtesy,  and  to 
have  appreciated  the  reception.  In  or  near  Flor- 
ence he  "found  and  visited  the  famous  Galileo, 
grown  old,  a  prisoner  to  the  Inquisition  for  think- 
ing in  Astronomy  otherwise  than  the  Franciscan 
and  Dominican  licencers  thought,"  a  martyr 
to  truth  who  doubtless  appealed  strongly  to 
Milton's  indignation,  and  who  would  have  touched 
him  still  more  deeply  could  he  have  foreseen  that 
one  day  they  were  to  suffer  in  common  the  fate  of 
blindness.  After  two  months  more  spent  in  Rome, 
he  visited  Naples,  and  had  intended  to  cross  to  Sicily  I 
and  go  thence  to  Greece,  when  rumors  of  civil  war  I 
in  England  led  him  to  turn  his  face  homewards, 
"inasmuch,"  he  says,  "as  I  thought  it  base  to  be 
travelling  at  my  ease  for  intellectual  culture  while 
my  countrymen  at  home  were  fighting  for  liberty." 


26  INTRODUCTION 

He  may  have  learned  that  things  had  not  gone  so 
far  as  he  feared,  for  he  did  not  go  directly  to 
England,  but  paid  second  visits  to  Rome  (where 
his  boldness  in  religious  discussion  led  him  to  run 
risks  from  the  Jesuits),  and  to  Florence,  thence  to 
Venice,  Verona,  Milan,  and  Geneva,  and  so  by 
Paris  to  England,  where  we  find  him  in  August, 
1639.  His  writings  produced  abroad  were  all  in 
Italian  or  Latin,  and  seem  to  have  brought  him 
/  considerable  distinction  among  the  Italian  men  of 
/  letters  whom  he  met. 

(6)     Second  Period  (1640-1660) 

Thus  was  closed  the  period  of  Milton's  education; 

and  had  public   affairs  permitted  it,  he  might 

now  have  begun  to  carry  out  his  plan  for  the  great 

poem  which  was  the  most  persistent  of  the  many 

schemes  he  had  meditated  for  literary  production 

on  a  large  scale.     But  public  affairs  did  not  permit 

it.     Whatever  view  one  takes  of  the  merits  of  the 

political  and  religious  questions  involved,  or  of 

the  permanent  value  of  the  prose  writings  which 

formed  Milton's  contribution  to  their  settlement, 

it  seems  clear  that  a  man  of  his  temperament  and 

principles  could  not  have  done  otherwise  than  he 

did.     There  has  been  much  not  very  fruitful  dis- 

\  cussion  on  what  he  might  have  written  in  pure 

I  literature  had  he  turned  his  back^ugon  thec^use 

y  qfjiB^rtyT^e^a^^^Sose  welfare  waSTnsoeepest 

passion.     Butsuch  conduct  in  such  a  man  would 


THE  LIFE  OF  MILTON  27 

have  been  desertion,  and,  according  to  his  own 
principles,  would  have  unfitted  him  for  noble 
achievement  in  any  field. 

Yet  Milton  did  not  plunge  rashly  into  the  con- 
flict. Shortly  after  he  returned  from  the  Conti- 
nent, the  household  at  Horton  was  broken  up, 
and  he  wea^bT^ndon  to  resume  his  studies,  and  I) 
decide  on  the  formTa^d^ub]^c?*^fTn^gr^t  poem.  V 
Part  of  his  time  was  occupied  in  teaching  his  two 
nephews,  and  afterwards  he  took  under  his  care 
a  small  number  of  other  youths,  sons  of  his  friends, 
Tn  TjH2?  hpuna,rri*H  Mmy  P"\v&\]}  the  daughter  of 
an  Oxfordshire  Royalist.  In  about  a  month  she 
left  him  and  remained  away  for  two  years,  at  the 
end  of  which  time  she  sought  and  obtained  a 
reconciliation.  She  died  in  1653  or  1654,  leaving 
him  three  little  daughters.  He  married  a  second 
time  in  1656,  but  this  wife  lived  only  fifteen 
months  after  the  marriage. 

The  main  occupation  of  his  first  years  in  London 
waSuXontroversy.  We  have  said  that  liberty  was 
MijtQjjVHeepestmssion,  3j^j^bGrt^?f^^urr(,  up- 
the  themej)£Jns  prose^ritings.  There  are  "  three 
species  of  liberty,"  he  says,  "  which  are  essential  to 
the  happiness  of  social  life — religious,  domestic, 
ancLcivil,"  and  for  all  three  Ke  fought.  Hislnost 
important  prose  works  may,  indeed,  be  roughly 
classed  under  these  heads: 


\ 


INTRODUCTION 

1.  RELIGIOUS,— A   group    of   five   pamphlets 
against  Episcopacy  (1641,  2). 

2.  DOMESTIC. — This  he  subdivides  as  follows: 
a0     EDUCATION:  one  pamphlet  (1644). 

b.  MARRIAGE:  four  pamphlets  on  behalf  of 
freedom    of    Divorce     (1643-5).      Milton's 
personal    experience    with    his    first    wife 
seems  to  have  first  led  to  his  consideration 
of  this  subject. 

c.  FREE   SPEECH:    Areopagitica   (1644),   an 
argument  in  favor  of  unlicensed  printing. 
This  is  the  most  important  of  Milton's  prose 
writings  regarded  as  literature. 

3.  CIVIL. — A  large  number  of  pamphlets  on 
questions  arising  out  of  the  execution  of 
Charles  I  and  the  establishment  of  a  Com- 
monwealth (1649-1660). 

His  prose  writing  continued  into  his  last  period, 
when  he  produced,  among  other  things,  a  history 
of  Britain  to  the  Norman  Conquest,  and  a  Latin 
disquisition  on  Christian  Doctrine,  which  is  our 
chief  source  of  information  about  his  later  theolog- 
ical opinions. 

Meanwhile,  the  crisis  in  national  affairs  was 
growing  more  acute.  In  1639,  the  Scots  had 
obtained  from  Charles,  through  force  of  arms,  the 
temporary  withdrawal  of  all  attempts  to  force 
Episcopacy  upon  them.  Soon,  however,  he  had 
broken  with  them  again,  had  called  the  Short 


THE  LIFE  OF  MILTON  29 

Parliament  in  order  to  obtain  supplies,  had  been 
presented  with  a  request  for  the  redress  of  griev- 
ances, and  had  once  more  ordered  a  dissolution. 
A  second  attempt  to  subdue  the  Scotch  resistance 
by  force  failed,  and  in  November,  1640,  Charles 
called  the  famous  Long  Parliament.  This  assem- 
bly began  by  instituting  constitutional  reforms 
with  great  energy,  and  later  took  up  Church  ques- 
tions. It  was  at  this  juncture  that  Milton  entered 
the  lists  with  his  pamphlets  against  Episcopacy.  7 

In  1642,  the  differences  between  Charles  and  V 
the  Parliamentary  party  became  so  acute  that 
civil  war  broke  out;  and  after  a  struggle  of  four 
years  it  ended  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Realists, 
and  the  surrender  of  the  King  to  the  Scots  aux- 
iliaries who  had  been  fighting  on  the  Parliamentary 
side  in  England. 

Now  a  new  cause  of  controversy  arose.     The 
opponents  of  the  King  split  into  two  parties,  one 
desirous    of    establishing    a    strict    and    uniform 
national  church  on  Presbyterian  principles,  with 
no  toleration  for  dissenters,  the  other  standing  for 
the  right  of  liberty  of  worship  for  those  whose       / 
consciences  forbade  their  entering  the  established     / 
Church.     The  latter  party,  supported  by  Cromwell  V 
and  the  army,  triumphed;  and  to  this  side  Milton 
belonged. 

Charles,  meanwhile,  had  been  negotiated  with 
again  and  again;  had  entered  into  a  treaty  with 


30  INTRODUCTION 

the  Scots  with  the  result  of  bringing  about  a  second 
civil  war,  which  ended  abruptly  in  the  overthrow 
of  his  allies;  and  had  finally  been  brought  to  trial 
by  the  army  and  the  remnant  of  the  Long  Parlia- 

V  ment,  condemned,  and  executed  (January,  1649). 

^  England  now  became  a  Republic,  and  Milton 
threw  himself  into  the  task  of  defending  the 
principles  on  which  it  had  been  established.  He 
became  officially  associated  with  the  new  govern- 
ment as  Secretary  for  Foreign  Tongues,  in  which 
capacity  he  not  only  conducted  its  foreign  corre- 
spondence, but  also  acted  as  its  literary  adviser 
and  champion  in  the  controversies  by  pamphlet 
that  arose  in  connection  with  the  execution  of  the 
King  and  the  theory  of  the  Commonwealth.  It 
was  in  the  midst  of  these  activities  that  a  great 
calamity  fell  upon  him.  The  defence  of  the  late 
King  had  been  undertaken  by  the  famous  Dutch 
Latinist  Salmasius  in  a  Defensio  Regia,  and  to 
Milton  fell  the  task  of  replying  to  it.  His  eyesight, 
weakened  even  in  childhood  by  overstudy,  was 
now  failing  fast,  and  he  was  warned  by  physicians 
that  it  would  go  altogether  if  he  persisted  in  this 
work.  But  to  Milton  the  fight  he  had  entered  was 
no  mere  matter  of  professional  employment  as  it 
was  to  his  opponent,  and  he  deliberately  sacrificed 
what  remained  to  him  of  light  in  the  service  of  the 
cause  to  which  he  was  devoted.  The  reply  was  a 
most  effective  one,  but  it  left  Milton  hopelessly 


THE  LIFE  0^  M1LTQJS  31 

blind.  With  the  aid  of  an  assistant,  however,  he 
retained  his   office  through  the  Protectorate  of 
Cromwell,  until  the  eve  of  the  Restoration. 
(c)     Third  Period  (1660-1674) 

Oliver  Cromwell  died  in  1658,  his  son  Richard 
succeeded  him  for  a  short  time,  and  in  1660  Charles 
II.  was  restored  to  the  throne.  To  the  last  Milton 
fought  with  tremendous  earnestness  against  this 
catastrophe.  For,  to  him,  it  was  indeed  a  catas- 
trophe. The  return  of  the  Stuarts  meant  to 
him  not  only  great  personal  danger,  but, 
what  was  far  more  important,  it  meant  the  over- 
throw of  all  that  he  had  for  twenty  years  spent 
himself  to  uphold.  It  meant  the  setting  up  in 
government,  in  religion,  and  in  society,  of  ideals 
and  institutions  that  he  could  not  but  regard  as 
the  extreme  of  reaction  and  national  degradation.  J 
Almost  by  a  miracle  he  escaped  personal  violence,  v 
but  he  was  of  necessity  forced  into  obscure  retire- 
ment; and  there,  reduced  in  fortune,  blind,  and 
broken-hearted,  he  devoted  himself  to  the  pro-  / 
auction  of  Paradise  Lost  and  Paradise  Regained.  V 
The  great  schemes  which  in  his  early  manhood 
he  had  planned  and  dreamed  over,  had  for  years 
been  laid  aside;  but  now  at  last  he  had  a  mournful 
leisure,  and  with  magnificent  fortitude  he  availed 
himself  of  the  opportunity. 

Paradise  Lost  had  been  begun  even  before  the 
King's  return;  in  1665  it  was  finished,  and  in  1667 


32  INTRODUCTION 

the  first  edition  appeared.  Paradise  Regained 
and  Samson  Agonistes  were  published  in  1671. 
The  History  of  Britain  already  mentioned,  and  a 
number  of  other  prose  works,  chiefly  of  a  personal 
and  curious  interest,  were  produced  in  the  same 
period. 

In  1657,  Milton's  second  wife,  Catherine  Wood- 
cock, had  died.  For  about  seven  years  after,  he 
lived  alone  with  his  three  daughters,  whom  he 
trained  to  read  to  him  not  merely  in  English,  but 
in  Latin,  Greek,  Italian,  French,  Spanish,  and  He- 
brew, though  they  did  not  understand  a  word  of 
what  they  read.  What  little  we  know  of  their 
relations  to  their  father  is  not  pleasant.  They 
seem  to  have  been  rebellious  and  undutiful, 
though  doubtless  there  was  much  provocation. 
In  1663,  Milton  took  a  third  wife,  Elizabeth 
Minshull,  who  did  much'  to  give  ease  and  comfort 
to  his  last  years,  and  who  long  survived  him. 

The  retirement  in  which  he  lived  during  this 
third  period,  when  public  affairs  seemed  to  him 
to  have  gone  all  wrong,  was  not  absolutely  soli- 
tary. He  was  visited  by  a  number  of  friends  and 
admirers,  men  of  culture  and  rank,  and  often  by 
foreigners  who  wished,  before  they  left  London,  to 
see  the  great  Latinist  who  had  humbled  Salmasius. 
The  harshness  that  appears  in  his  controversial 
writings,  and  the  somewhat  unsympathetic  aus- 
terity that  seems  to  be  indicated  by  his  relations 


L' ALLEGRO  AND  IL  PENSEROSO  33 

with  his  first  wife  and  his  children,  are  to  be  coun- 
terbalanced in  our  minds  by  the  impression  of 
companionableness  that  we  derive  from  the  picture 
of  the  old  blind  poet,  sought  out  by  many  who  not 
merely  admired  his  greatness,  but  found  pleasure 
in  his  society,  and  counted  it  a  privilege  to  talk 
with  him  and  read  to  him.  Stern  and  sad  he 
could  hardly  fail  to  be,  but  his  old  age  was  peaceful 
and  not  bitter. 

He  died  on  November  8,  1674,  and  was  buried 
in  the  Church  of  St.  Giles,  Cripplegate,  London. 

III.   L 'ALLEGRO  AND  IL  PENSEROSO 

jind  II  PmserosQjWQ  believed  to  jiave 


They  are  com- 
panion studies  01  the  cmiracteristic  occupations  of 
two  men  of  different  temperaments,  or  of  the  same 
man  in  two  different  moods.  The  plan  of  the  t:wo 
pieces  is  in  general  the  same.  Both  begin  with 
an  invocation  and  a  fanciful  mythological  gene- 
alogy, and  proceed  to  describe  a  series  of  imagined 
typical  experiences.  These  follow  roughly  the 
times  of  the  day  in  natural  succession,  but  it  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  in  either  case  Milton 
meant  the  hero  to  include  within  one  span  of 
twenty-four  hours  all  the  occupations  mentioned. 
:  Thus  L 'Allegro,  the  cheerful  man,  may  rise  with  the 
lark,  walk  out  among  the  blithe  sounds  of  the 
early  morning,  observe  the  various  occupations  of 


34  INTRODUCTION 

the  country  people,  and  in  the  evening  sit  by  the 
fire  and  hear  their  rustic  tales.  Or  he  may  spend 
his  time  among  the  brilliant  gaieties  of  the  court, 
or  go  to  the  theatre,  or  listen  to  light  music.  On 
the  other  hand,  II  Penseroso,  the  meditative  man, 
hears  the  nightingale  instead  of  the  lark,  and 
walking  out  by  moonlight,  he  catches  the  sound 
of  a  far-off  curfew  over  the  waters.  Or,  if  the 
evening  is  chill,  he  will  sit  by  his  fireside  listening 
to  the  sounds  in  the  street  below,  or  studying 
philosophy  and  literature  until  the  dawn.  The 
congenial  morning  for  him  will  be  cloudy,  with 
showers  and  wind,  and  when  the  sun  begins  to 
glare  he  will  seek  shades  in  the  gloom  of  the  forest, 
where  he  will  drowse  beside  a  murmuring  stream. 
He  will  find  delight,  too,  in  the  dim  light  of  a  great 
church,  and  in  the  solemn  tones  of  the  organ.  His 
Jd  age  he  would  spend  in  the  peaceful  retirement 
of  a  hermitage* 

f  Milton  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  received 
suggestions  for  these  poems  from  Burton's  Anat- 
omy of  Melancholy,  especially  the  prefatory  verses 
called  The  Author's  Abstract  of  Melancholy,  and 
from  the  song,  Hence,  all  you  vain  delights,  in 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  The  Nice  Valour.  In 
neither  case  is  the  obligation  very  clearly  marked. 
Another  probable  source  of  suggestion,  to  which 
attention  does  not  seem  to  have  yet  been  called, 
is  in  John  Marston's  Scourge  of  Villainy ,  Satire  xi; 


COMUS  35 

Sleep,  grim  Reproof;  my  jocund  Muse  doth  sing 
In  other  keys,  to  nimbler  fingering. 
Dull-sprighted  Melancholy,  leave  my  brain- 
To  hell,  Cimmerian  night!  in  lively  vein 
I  strive  to  paint,  then  thence  all  dark  intent 
And  sullen  frowns!     Come,  sporting  Merriment 
Cheek-dimpling  Laughter,  crown  my  very  soul 
With  jouisance,  whilst  mirthful  jests  control 
The  gouty  humours  of  these  pride-swolTn  days.1 

The  resemblance  of  these  lines,  both  in  thought 
and  phrasing,  to  the  opening  of  U Allegro  scarcely 
needs  to  be  pointed  out. 

Both  poems  contain  the  same  variety  of  metres  ,\ 
They  open  with  ten  liries  of  six  and  ten  syllables 
alternately,  while  the  main  parts  of  the  poems 
consist  of  lines  of  eight  syllables.  The  accents 
fall  as  a  rule  on  the  even,  but  not  infrequently  on 
the  odd,  syllables,  and' in  the  latter  case,  the  line 
is  one  syllable  shorter.  The  arrangement  of  rhymes 
in  the  opening  lines  is  as  follows: — a  b  b  a  c  d  d 
e  e  c;  throughout  the  rest  of  the  poems  the  lines 
rhyme  in  pairs. 

IV.    COMUS 

/  During  the  reign  of  Charles  I.,  as  for  a  consider- 
'able  time  previously,  the  government  of  certain 
outlying  parts  of  the  realm  was  presided  over  by 
noblemen  with  almost  vice-regal  state.  Such 
was  the  position  of  Wentworth,  afterwards  Earl 

1  The   Works  of  John  Marston,  ed.  by  A.  EL  Bullen. 
London,  1887,  vol.  Ill,  p.  371. 


36  INTRODUCTION 

of  Strafford,  as  Lord  President  of  the  North  and 

later  as  Lord  Deputy  in  Ireland,  and  such  also  was 

that  of  the  Earl  of  Bridge  water,  who  had  been 

|  created  Lord  President  of  Wales.     The  appoint- 

.  ment  was  made  in  1631,  but  the  Earl  does  not 

seem  to  have  actually  entered  upon  his  office  until 

a  year  or  twro  later.     At  any  rate,  it  was  not  till 

/  the  summer  of  1634  that  the  celebrations  in  honor 

/  of  his  inauguration  were  held;  and  it  was  these 

/  celebrations  that  gave  occasion  for  the  writing  of 

Comus. 

Mr.  Henry  Lawes,  one  of  the  mosc  distinguished 
musicians  of  the  time,  and  a  person  of  experience 
in  the  presentation  of  court  entertainments,  was 
intimate  both  with  the  Bridgewaters — to  some  of 
whom  he  had  given  instruction  in  music — and 
with  Milton.  Indeed,  he  had  already  induced 
the  young  poet  to  write  his  Arcades  for  an  enter- 
tainment to  be  given  in  honor  of  a  member  of  the 
same  noble  family.  It  is  more  than  probable, 
/  then,  that  it  was  through  Lawes  that  Milton  came 
/  to  compose  this  work,  so  far  his  most  considerable 
production.  Lawes  himself  wrote  the  music  for 
the  songs,  attended  to  the  stage  management, 
acted  the  very  important  part  of  the  Attendant 
Spirit,  and,  some  years  later,  obtained  Milton's 
consent  to  the  publication  of  the  poem  itself. 

The  form  of  the  entertainment  was  far  from 
unusual  at  the  time.     The  practice  of  dancing  by 


COMUS  37 

masked  figures  had  existed  as  part  of  the  revels 
'on  festive  occasions  in  England  for  two  or  three 
centuries;  but  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  if  not  sooner,  the  additional    feature  of 
the  dancing  of  the  masquers  with  the  spectators 
was  introduced  (from  Italy,  one  chronicler  seems 
to  say),  and  the  name  masque  was  used  of  the 
performance.     Throughout  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  / 
it  underwent  a   considerable   development,   and  / 
came  to  be  a  common  episode  in  the  regular/ 
drama,  as  well  as  a  frequent  part  of  the  gorgeous/ 
entertainments   in  which   that   queen   delighted.* 
f  But  it  was  not  till  the  accession  of  James  I.  that,  \ 


the*  hfl.Tiffc_nf  Ttem  Jnrt^on^Jt  took  rank  in 
Jandjis  a  form  of  literature/^  To  the  introductory 
speech  and  the  occasional  songs  in  which  had 
hitherto  mainly  consisted  the  literary  elements  of 
the  representation,  Jonson  added  dialogue  of 
varying  length  and  the  grotesque  anti-masque, 
while  the  mechanical  ingenuity  of  Inigo  Jones  and 
the  musical  ability  of  men  like  Lawes  combined  to 
build  up  those  splendid  and  costly  performances 
which  were  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  brilliancy 
in  the  court  society  of  the  reigns  of  James  I.  and 
Charles  I.  The  form  was  at  its  point  of  highest  V 
development  when  Milton  produced  Comus;  and  j 
an  analysis  of  that  performance  into  its  most  im- 
portant elements  will  sufficiently  indicate  the 
characteristics  of  the  type. 


u 


38  INTRODUCTION 


1.  The   occasion   was   that   of   an   important 
festivity  in  a  great  family.     So  royal  accessions, 
progresses,   weddings,   and   the   like,   were   most 
frequently  celebrated  by  a  masque. 

2.  Most  of  the  actors  in  Comus  were  members 
of  a  noble  family.     This  was  usual,  and  distin- 
guished the  masque  from  the  stage-plays  performed 
by  professional  actors. 

3.  The  long  introductory  speech  by  the  At- 
tendant Spirit,  in  which  the  situation  is  explained 
to  the  audience,  represents  the  prologue  wtiich, 
spoken  by  a  "presenter,"  was  probably  the  first 
literary  element  to  attach  itself  to  the  original 
masque  dance.  ' 

4.  At  vv.  960  and  974  the  words  of  the  Spirit 
indicate  courtly  dancing  of  a  different  type  from 
that  of  the  rustics  that  has  just  taken  place.     This 
was  doubtless  taken  part  in  by  some  members  of 
the  audience,  as  such  mixed  dances  had  been  a 
feature  of  masques  since  the  time  of  Henry  VIII. 
at  least. 

5.  The  dance  of  monsters,  introduced  by  vv. 
143,  4,  and  the  country  dances  referred  to  in  vv. 
951  ff.  and  958,  and  indicated  by  the  stage  direc- 
tion at  v.  957,  are  examples  of  the  anti-masque 
used  by  Jonson  to  afford  contrast  and  amusement. 
The  anti-masque  was  frequently  performed   by 
professionals    of    whose  names    no    records    are 
preserved,  and  as  Comus   himself  takes   part   in 


COMUS  39 

the  first  one  at  v.  144,  we  may  here  have  a  reason 

why  the  name  of  the  performer  who  acted  this  role 
has  not  been  handed  down. 

6.  The  mythological  element  seen,  for  example, 
in  the  character  and  genealogy  of  Comus  and  of 
Sabrina,had  for  long  been  one  of  the  characteristics 
of  the  type.    The  water-nymphs  were  especially 
common. 

7.  Since  masques   were  usually  produced  in 
honor  of  some  great  personage,  it  was  natural  that 
flattering  speeches  and  complimentary  allusions 
should  be  prominent  in  the  dialogue.     Examples 
of  this  are  found  in  Comus  in  the  following  pas- 
sages : — 

a.  To  the  Earl  of  Bridgewater,  vv.  30-36. 

b.  To  the  Bridgewater  family,  vv.  34,  966  -  975, 
and  more  especially  to  the  Lady  Alice  Egerton, 
vv.  145-150,  244-264,  366  ff.,  555-562,  739  ff.,  and 
her   brothers,    the   Viscount   Brackley   and   Mr. 
Thomas  Egerton,  vv.  297-303. 

c.  To  Mr.  Henry  Lawes,  the  musician,  who 
acted  Thyrsis,  vv.  494-496. 

d.  To  the  Welsh  people,  who  were  doubtless 
represented  in  the  audience,  v.  33. 

8.  The  lyrics,  which  were  added  to  the  original 
dance  very  early  in  the  development  of  the  masque, 
are  represented  here  by  the  song  to  Echo,  vv. 
230-243,  the   songs  to  Sabrina,  w.  859-889,  and 


*0  INTRODUCTION 

by  Sabrfna,  w.  890-900,  as  well  as  by  the  lyrical 
speeches  of  the  Spirit  at  the  end. 

pastoral  element  appears  in.  the  disguise 
Spirit  and  Comus  as  shepherds,  in  the 
speeches  made  by  them  in  this  character,  especially 
in  such  passages  as  w.  493-496,  540-548,  and 
822, 3,  where  reference  is  made  to  shepherds  as 
devotees  of  the  Muses,  and  in  the  dance  of  shep- 
herds in  the  second  anti-masque.  The  presence 
of  such  features  as  these  in  this  and  other  masques 
has  led  some  critics  to  confuse  the  masque  in 
general  with  the  pastoral.1  There  is  not,  how- 
ever, any  essential  connection  between  the  two 
types;  though  the  conventions  of  pastoral  poetry 
occasionally  found  their  way  into  the  masque  as 
they  did  into  other  literary  forms. 

10., The  didacticism  by  which^  Milton  availed 

himself  of  a  festive  occasion  to  proclaim  his  belief 
in  the  supreme  value  of  purity/had  precedent  in 
the  practice  Of  Jonson.  The  earnestness  and 
elevation,  however,  of  this  part  of  the  work 
suggest  how  widely  Milton's  ideas  of  the  scope  and 
purpose  of  poetry  differed  from  those  of  his  prede- 
cessors in  the  masque  and  of  his  contemporaries  * 
in  English  poetry  generally. 

These  points  describe  with  some  fullness  the 
type  of  dramatic  composition  to  which  Comus  be- 
longs. A  comparison  of  this  analysis  with  Milton's 

1  See  especially  Macaulay's  Essay  on  Milton. 


COMUS  41 

poem  as  a  whole  shows  how  much  its  greatness 
depends  on  the  use  he  made  of  the  form,  how  little 
on.  the  form  itself. 

The  figure  of_Comus,  God  of  Cheer  or  of  the 
Belly,  had  appeared  in  Ben  Jonson's  masque  of 
~ftea£ure  Reconciled  to  Virtue  in  1619,  but  the  re- 
semblance to  Milton's  creation  does  not  go  much 
farther  than  what  is  implied  in  the  name. 

Much  more  suggestive  as  a  source  is  a  curious  ^ 
Latin  work,  written  mostly  in  prose  by  a  Dutch- 
man, Hendrik  van  der  Putten.  ComuSj  sive  Pha- 
gesiposia  Cimmeria:  Somnium,  as  it  was  called, 
had  been  published  at  Oxford  in  the  year  in  which 
Comus  was  composed.  It  is  "  the  description  of  a 
dream  in  which  Comus,  the  genius  of  Love  and 
Cheerfulness,  appears  to  the  author,  declares  him- 
self the  lord  of  the  whole  wide  realm  of  pleasure, 
and  briefly  expounds  his  idea  of  life."  In  a  "  won- 
drous structure,  the  palace  of  Comus,  .  .  a 
feast  is  celebrated,  the  guests  at  which  are  masked; 
but  those  that  one  takes  for  men  are  Daunian 
and  Getulian  wolves,  dangerous  monsters  by  their 
bite,  hiding  their  true  n.ature  under  masks  and 

hypocritical  appearances Comus  ....  is 

found  at  a  brilliant  table  surrounded  by  all  the 
refinements  of  luxury.  .  .  .  During  the  feast 
Comus  sings  an  ode  on  the  mysteries  of  his  wor- 
ship. .  .  .  Then  Tabutius,  an  old  man,  begins 
to  moralize  prolixly.  .  .  .  The  themes  which 


y 


42  INTRODUCTION 

he  handles  are  drunkenness,  excess  in  eating,  fre- 
quent banquets,     .     .     .     and  the  like."1 

\  In  George  Peele's  Old  Wives'  Tale  (pub.  1595), 
there  are  two  brothers  searching  for  a  lost  sister 
who  has  fallen  into  the  power  of  an  enchanter. 
The  enchanter  has  learned  his  magic  from  his 
witch  mother,  and  exercises  it  by  means  of  a 
potion  .which  induces  forge tfulness.  Finally  the 
enchantment  is  broken  and  the  lady  liberated.  It 
contains  also  an  echo-song,  vaguely  suggestive  of 
the  first  lyric  in  Comus.  There  is  no  reason  why 
Milton  may  not  have  read  this  play,  and  had  one 
or  two- of  its  features  in  mind  when  he  constructed 
the  plot  of  his  masque,  but  the  method  of  treat- 

f  ment  and  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  two  works 
are  so  utterly  different  that  it  would  be  a  mistake 
to  regard  the  Old  Wives'  Tale  as  in  any  important 
sense  the  original  of  Comus. 

Even  less  substantial  are  the  resemblances  to 
Fletcher's  Faithful  Shepherdess.  This  play,  largely 
imitated  from  two  Italian  pastoral  dramas,  Tasso's 
Aminta  and  Guarini's  Pastor  Fido,  is  entirely 
different  in  plot  from  Comus,  and  it  has  no  charac- 
ters which  correspond.  The  resemblances  chiefly 
consist  in  the  fact  that  the  virtue  of  chastity  is 
the  main  theme  of  both,  and  in  a  number  of  small 

1  Masson,  Poetical  Works  of  John  Milton,  Lond.  and 
N.  Y.,  1894,  vol.  I,  pp.  174-6,  abridged  from  I.  Schmidt's 
Milton's  Comus,  Berlin,  1860. 


LYCIDAS  43 

details  none  of  which  is  important  enough  to 
justify  any  decided  statement  about  Milton's  in- 
debtedness. 

In  the  Inner  Temple  Masque  by  William  Browne  / 
(1614),  the  chief  character  is  Circe,  whose  attempts  I 
to  enchant  Ulysses  bear  some  likeness  to  the  wiles 
of  Comus.     She  is  surrounded   by   nymphs    and 
sirens  (cf .  Comus,  vv.  252-257)  and  has  a  following 
of  men  in  beasts'  shapes  who  dance  an  anti- 
masque  (cf.  Comus,  v.  144).     It  is  probable  that 
Milton  derived  suggestions  from  this  production. 

Other  sources  of  detail  in  Comus,  such  as  the 
Circe  episode  from  the  Odyssey,  are  pointed  out  in 
the  notes. 

The^  dialogue  of  Comus  is  written  in  the  blank  / 
— verge  of  ten  syllables  with  five  accents,  which^was/ 

the  usual  metre  of  the  English  drama.  One  pas- 
''  sage  (yv.  495-512)  is  rhymed  in  couplets.  There 
are  besides  two  long  lyrical  passages  (vv.  93-144 
and  902-1023)  in  the  same  octosyllabic  metre  as 
the  greater  part  of  L 'Allegro  and  II  Penseroso. 
The  songs  are  made  up  of  a  variety  of  lines,  vari- 
ously rhymed. 

V.     LYCIDAS 

Lycidas  was  written  in  1637,  and  published  in 
the  following  year  as  the  last  of  a  collection  of 
poems  by  various  hands,  lamenting  the  death  of 
Edward  King,  a  Fellow  of  Christ's  College,  Cam- 
bridge. In  August,  1637,  King  had  set  out  to 


44  INTRODUCTION 

visit  relatives  in  Ireland;  but  the  vessel  in  which 
he  was  crossing  the  Irish  Sea  foundered  and  was 
lost.  Milton  and  he  had  been  at  Christ's  at  the 
same  time,  and  though  the  intimacy  between  them 
was  not  of  such  warmth  as  that  existing  between 
Milton  and  Charles  Diodati,  for  whom  he  wrote 
his  Latin  elegy,  (the  Epitaphium  Damonis)  ,he  yet 
seems  to  have  known  King  well,  and  to  have  had  a 
sincere  admiration  for  both  his  character  and  his 
ability. 

The  poem  is  a  pastoral  elegy  following  the  tra- 
dition  begun  by  Theocritus.  In  works  of  this 
type,  the  scene  is  laid  in  a  fanciful  Sicily  or  Ar- 
cadia, whose  inhabitants  are  figured  as  shepherds, 
spending  th^ir  days  watching  their  sheep  and 
playing  on  their  pipes  of  straw.  The  example  of 
\  the  Sicilian  School  had  been  followed  by  Vergil 
and  other  classical  writers,  and  with  the  Renais- 
sance there  had  come  a  great  revival  of  the  pas- 
toral throughout  western  Europe.  The  idea  had 
been  used  not  only  in  elegy  but  also  in  prose 
romance  and  in  the  drama;  and  Milton  had  Eng- 
lish examples  in  such  works  as  Sir  Philip  Sidney's 
Arcadia  and  The  Faithful  Shepherdess  of  John 
Fletcher.  He  had  already  employed  the  pastoral 
fiction  in  Arcades  and  in  parts  of  Comus,  and 
throughout  the  present  poem  the  setting  and 
imagery  are  of  this  nature. 


LYCIDAS  45 

The  poem  opens  with  a  statement  of  the  occasion 
(vv.  1-14),  and  this  is  followed  by  the  conventional 
invocation  of  the  Muses  (vv.  15-22). 

The  pastoral  proper  begins  with  v.  23,  where  he 
images  the  life  of  King  and  himself  while  students  at 
Cambridge,  following  the  same  studies  and  alike    x 
experimenting   in   poetr}^    as  that  of  two  young  * 
shepherds,  born  on  the    same    hillside,  herding 
their  flocks  together,  and  piping  on  the  oaten  flute. 
This  figure  is  kept  up  throughout  the  poem,  ex- 
cept in  the  digressions. 

The  first  of  these  (vv.  64-84)  deals~with  Poetry 
and  J^ame^and  is  very  significant  of  the  spirit  in 
which  Milton  devoted  himself  to  a  poetical  career. 
In  it  he  rises  from  the  lower  view  uf  Fame  as  mere 
worldly  reputation  to  a  conception  of  it  as  the 
stamp  of  (Jivine  approval 

The  lament  is  then  resumed  (v.  85)  in  an  attempt 
to  fix  the  blame  for  the  disaster,  and  at  v.  108 
St.  Peter  is  introduced  as  the  guardian  of  the 
church  he  founded,  lamenting  the  death  of  so  v 
promising  a  youth  at  a  time  when  the  ministry 
was  crowded  with  hirelings.  In  this  digression  on 
the  state  of  the  English  Church,  the  service  of 
which  King  had  intended  to  enter,  we  have  a1 
splendid  bur?t  of  indignation  against  those  abuses 
which  from  Milton's  point  of  view  were  bringing 
the  Church  into  deeper  and  deeper  degradation.1 

1  See  Section  I  of  this  Introduction. 


46  INTRODUCTION 

His  hope  that  a  short  and  effective  remedy  was 
at  hand  is  expressed  in'vv.  130,  1. 

The  elegy  proper  is  then  taken  up  again  (vv. 
165-185),  and  he  rises  from  the  tone  of  regret  that 
has  prevailed  hitherto  to  a  triumphant  assertion 
of  his  friend's  immortality.  In  these  lines  he 
leaves  the  classical  and  pagan  allusions,  which, 
following  the  tradition  of  the  pastoral,  he  had 
freely  introduced  in  the  earlier  pages,  and  adopts 
the  language  of  the  New  Testament. 

In  the  last  eight  lines  we  have  a  kind  of  epilogue 
in  which  Milton  separates  himself  from  the  speaker 
in  the  foregoing  lament,  tells  of  the  close  of  the 
shepherd's  lay.,  and  refers  symbolically  to  his  own 
approaching  change  of  occupation. 

The  metre  of  Lycidas  consists  mainly  of  ^ten- 
syllabled  lines,  with  the  accents  on  the  even  sylla- 
bles. It  is  rhymed^lrregularly^but  with  the  most 
subtly  musical  effectTanoT^t  is  varied  by  the 
occasional  introduction  of  a  blank  verse  line  and 
of  a  shorter  line  of  three  accents.1  So  successfully 
has  Milton  used  this  freedom  that  the  poem  ranks 
as  one  of  the  most  varied  and  best  sustained 
pieces  of  rhythm  in  the  language. 


1  For  examples  of  blank  verse  lines,  see  vv.  1,  22, 
39.  51,  82,  91,  161;  of  lines  of  three  accents,  see  vv.  4,  19, 
21,  33,  41,  43,  48,  56,  79,  88,  90,  95,  108,  145. 


MILTON'S  PURITANISM  47 

VI.  MILTON'S  PURITANISM 
In  reading  the  poems  of  Milton  contained  in  the 
present  volume,  it  is  easy  to  be  at  a  loss  to  account 
for  what  may  appear  their  inconsistency  with 
Puritanism,  as  Puritanism  is  ordinarily  conceived. 
L' Allegro  and  II  Penseroso  both  show  a  genuine 
delight  in_art,  and  a  capacity  for  sheer  pleasure 
which  Puritanism  is_supppsed  to  Jiava_shunn@d. 
Comus  ^Belongs  to^a  type  of  dramatic  literature 
which,  more  than  any  other,  is  associated  with  the 
pleasure-loving  Cavalier  society,  and  which  is 
particularly  identified  with  that  Court  the  downfall 
of  which  the  triumph  of  Puritanism  implied. 
And  LycidaSj  in  spite  of  the  outburst  on  the  cor- 
ruption in  the  Church,  shows  an  anxious  care  for 
that  Church  itself — the  Church  which  Puritanism 
attempted  to  transform,  if  not  to  destroy.  How 
is  the  author  of  such  poems  to  be  accounted  a 
Puritan? 

The  explanation  lies  in  a  clearer  understanding, 
first,  of  the  history  of  Puritanism  itself;  and,  sec- 
ond, of  the  growth  of  Milton's  opinions. 

In  the  first  section  of  this  Introduction,  there 
has  been  indicated  a  gradual  development  of  Puri- 
tan sentiment  with  regard  to  ritual  and  doctrine. 
This  was  brought  about  largely  by  the  innovations 
of  the  High  Church  party;  for,  as  that  party  at- 
tempted more  and  more  effectually  to  introduce 
its  views  and  practices  into  the  Established 


48  INTRODUCTION 

Church,  the  Puritans  were  led  to  define  more 
clearly  and  emphasize  more  strongly  their  points 
of  difference.  Partly,  perhaps,  through  the  ani- 
mus of  controversy,  partly  through  logical  neces- 
sity, these  points  of  difference  increased  in  number 
and  apparent  importance.  They  began  to  appear 
in  fields  that  had  at  first  been  quite  remote  from 
the  dispute.  Thus,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  there  had  been  many 
English  gentlemen,  Puritan  in  theology,  who  were 
lovers  of  the  beautiful  in  art,  in  literature,  and, 
like  Milton's  father,  in  music;  and  who,  whil6  rig- 
orously pure  in  their  private  morals,  were  yet  gen- 
erous in  their  culture  and  cheerful  in  their  attitude 
towards  life.  But  it  was  by  the  Cavalier  that  the 
pleasure-giving  sides  of  life  were  most  assiduously 
cultivated;  and  when  the  Puritans  found  them- 
selves forced  by  the  ecclesiastical  and  political 
issues  of  the  time  to  take  sides  against  the  Cav- 
aliers, they  were  led  by  the  violence  of  the  more 
extreme  members  of  their  party  to  relegate  to  the 
background  those  aesthetic  tastes  which  they  held 
in  common  with  the  more  refined  men  of  the  oppo- 
site party,  and  finally,  in  many  cases,  to  regard  all 
such  things  as  wiles  of"  the  devil.  Thus  became 
predominant  that  narrow  and  unlovely  typ'Q  of 
Puritanism  which  to-day  is  so  often  regarded  as 
the  only  one;  while,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  only 
the  triumph  of  an  extreme  party  brought  about 


MILTON'S  PURITANISM  49 

by  the  open  rupture  with  those  who,  whatever 
may  have  been  their  vices,  were  generous  in  their 
view  of  the  place  of  beauty  in  life. 

Now  Milton,  by  upbringing  and  by  tempera- 
ment, belonged  to  the  more  moderate  and  cultured 
group  of  Puritans.  He  was  brought  up  in  a 
refined  home,  his  father  was  a  man  of  artistic 
sensibilities,  and  the  poet  himself  received,  as  we 
have  seen,  a  mo^liberal^eclujcatipn.  His  purpose, 
cherished  till  manhood,  of  becoming  a  clergyman, 
along  with  the  passage  in  II  Penseroso  which  shows 
his  appreciation  of  beautiful  architecture  and 
music  in  the  services  of  the  Church,  is  sufficient  to 
disprove  any  natural  aversion  to  the  English 
Church  itself.  Further,  he  deliberately  chose  an 
artistic  career;  and  after  the  turmoil  of  the  Puritan 
Revolution  was  over,  he  returned  to  it.  For 
nothing  are  the  poems  in  the  present  volume  more 
notable  than  for  their  artistic  qualities. 

But  keen  as  was  Milton's  love  of  art,  there  were 
things  for  which  he  cared  still  more.  Throughout 
these  earlier  productions  we  find  him  constantly 
awake  to  the  moral  questions  suggested  by  his 
subject.  Comus,  a  poem  written  ostensibly  for 
the  entertSmment  ot  a  lestive  gathering;,  "Isf 
an  expfessionT  of  his  convictions  on  fundamental 
moral  problems.JIK  n£ 

diligence,  the  necessity  of  the  strictest  personal 
purity  for  the  best  results,  whether  in  thinking  or 


50  INTRODUCTION 

living,  the  conviction  that  Virtue  must  in  the  long 
run  triumph — these  things,  and  not  the  celebration 
of  the  inauguration  of  the  Earl  of  Bridgewater, 
are  the  real  themes  of  the  masque.  The  passion 
in  Lycidas  rises  to  its  highest  pitch,  not  in  ex- 
pressions of  grief  over  the  death  of  his  friend,  but 
in  an  almost  irrelevant  burst  of  righteous  indig- 
nation over  the  degradation  of  the  holy  office, 
and  the  falsehood  and  hypocrisy  and  selfishness 
which  were  undermining  the  foundations  of  the 
Church. 

When  he  was  on  the  threshold  of  his  career, 
national  events  turned  this  moral  enthusiasm  into 
a  new  channel.  The  sacred  principle  of  liberty  was 
in  danger.  Without  hesitation,  Milton  laid  aside 
his  poetry  and  turned  to  the  service  of  the  cause 
which  seemed  to  him  to  call  most  loudly  for  help; 
and  since  the  upholders  of  that  cause  had  in  many 
cases  no  sympathy  with  those  other  interests  to 
which  he  had  expected  to  devote  himself,  the 
period  of  his  active  association  with  them  is  al- 
^n\ns,t-  {wren  of  poetical  production. 

Yet  the  old  ideal  was  befor^ETm  still;  and  when, 
old,  blind,  and  disappointed  of  the  .results  of  his 
long  hope  and  endeavor,  he  retired  to  his  obscure 
corner,  it  was  not  like  Swift,  "  to  die  like  a  poisoned 
rat  in  a  hole/'  but  to  take  up  the  task  that  he  had 
always  regarded  as  his,  and  to  carry  it  to  a  glorious 
consummation.  Paradise  Lost  may  be  the  epic  of 


MILTON'S  PURITANISM  51 

a  dead  or  dying  theology;  Samson  Agonistes  may 
be  the  grim  deathsong  of  the  ruined  Roundhead  ; 
but  in  both  Milton  is  the  artist  still,  and  the  last- 
ing proof  of  the  possibility  of  the  combination  of 
Puritanism  and  culture. 


L'ALLEGRO 

HENCE,  loathed  Melancholy, 

Of  Cerberus  and  blackest  Midnight  born 
In  Stygian  cave  forlorn 

'Mongst  horrid  shapes,  and  shrieks,  and  sights 

unholy!       '.jzJ^ 
5  Find  out  gome  uncoSith  cell, 

Where  brooding  Darkness  spreads  his  jealous 

wings, 
And  the  night-raven  sings; 

There,  under  ebon  shades  and  low-browed  rocks, 
As  ragged  as  thy  locks, 
10      In  dark  Cimmerian  desert  ever  dwell. 
But  come,\thou  Goddess  fair  land  free, 
In  heaven  yclept  EiiphxQs^jae, 
And  by  men  heart-easing  Mirth, 
Whom  lovely  Venus,  at  a  birth, 
is  With  two!  sister  Graces  more, 
To  ivy-crowned  Bacchus  bore:  - 
Or  whether  (as  some  sager  sing) 

e  faolie  wind  tlmt  breathes  the  spring, 
Stiyr,  with  Aurora  playing, 
s  met  her  once  a-Maying, 
There,  on  beds  of  violets  blue, 
And  fresh-blown  roses  washed  in  dew, 
Filled  her  with  thee,  a  daughter  fair, 


54  .     MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 


Scrbuxom,  blithe,  and  debonair. 
jx^Haste  thee,  Nymph,  and  bring  with  thee 
"Jest,  and  youthful , 

Quips  and  cranks 

^xNods  and  becks  and  wreathed  smiles,      ~        — *   „ 
X  Such  as  hang  on  Hebe's  che&J?^*r*r"%  *\^  \" 

And  love  to  live  in  dimple  sleek;  ao 

Sport  that  wrinkled  Care  derides, 

AndLaughter  holding  both  his  sides. 
/  I  Come,  and  trip  it,  as  you  go, 
-\0n  the  light  fantastic  toe; 
/  And  in  thy  right  hand  lead  with  thee  35 

The  mountain-nymph,  sweet  Liberty ;/ 

And,  if  I  give  thee  honour  due, 
£  Mirth,  admit  me  of  thy  crew, 

To  live  with  her,  and  live  with  thee, 

unreproved  pleasures  free:  « 

To  hear  the  lark  begin  his  flight,      "^ 

And,  singing,  startle  the  dull  night, 
f :•>""  From  his  watch-tower  in  the  skies, 
/•-Till  the  dapplgd  dawn  doth  rise; 

Then  to  come,  hi  spite  of  sorrow,  & 

And  at  my  window  bid  good-morrow, 

Through  the  sweet-briar  or  the  vine, 
^y^Or  the  twisted  eglantine; 

\VTiile  the  cock,  with  lively  din, 

Scatters  the  rear  of  darkness  thin,  $ 

/  And  to  the  stack,  or  the  barn-door, 
,,  Stoutly  struts  his  dames  before: 


L'ALLEGRO  55 


Oft  listening  how  the  hounds  and  horn/*' 


^xCheerly  rouse  the  slumbering  morn,  Y^^aT^^^ 
s^  From  the  side  of  some  hoar  hill, 
/  Through  the  high  wood  echoing  shrill: 
y  Sometime!  walking!  not  uijseen, 

By  hedgqrow  elmsL  on  hillocks  green, 

Right  atainstl  tha  eastern  gate,, 
eo  Where  the  great  Sun  begins  his  stai 

Robed  in  flames  and  amber  light, 
jj^The  clouds  in  thousand  liveries  dight; 

II         N^  '     mtit  '_ 

1  ,  While  the  plowman,  near  at  hand, 
&  Whistles  o'er  the  furrowed  land, 

the  milkmaid  singeth  blithe, — 


/'And  the  mower  whets  his  scythe,    ^  Q* 
f  /And  every  shepherd  tells  hiT^al^ 


the  ha\vthorn  in  the  dale. 
r  Straight  'mine  eye  hath  caught  new  pleasures 
70  Whilst  the  landskip  roun 
^Russet  lawnsj  and  f 

-/Where  the  nibbling  flocks  do  stray; 
f  .Mountains  on  whose  barren  breast 
The  labouring  clouds  do  often  rest; 
^d  Meadows  trim,  with  daisies  pied; 
i^hallow  brooks,  and  rivers  wide; 
"Towers  and  bat%m,ents.it  sees 


Where  perhaps  some  beauty  lies, 
so  "vl  'ne  cynosure  of  neighbouring  eyes. 
Hard  by  a  cottage  chimney  smokes   ^ 


66  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

xTYom  betwixt  two  aged  oaks,  ^^*     - 

Where  Corydon  and  Thyrsis  met  feT^T. 

Are  at  their  savoury  dinner jS£t  lyH^Crvj 

Of  herbs  and  other  countryTmlsses, 
Which  the  neat-handed  Phyllis  dresses; 
And  then  in  haste  her  bower  she  leaves, 
With  Thestylis  to  bind  the  sheaves; 
Or,  if  the  earlier  season  lead, 


>*To  thekannedfcaykKJck  inUhe_mead. 
*  Sometimes  with 


^XtSometimes,!  with 

The  upland  hamlets  will  invite, 
When  the  merry  bells  ring  round, 

the  jocund  rebecks  sound 
To  many  a  youth  and  many  a  maid 
Dancing  in  the  chequered  shade, 
And  young  and  old  come  forth  to  play 

x  On  a  sunshine  holiday, 

^,-Till  the  livelong  daylight  fail: 

/Then  to  the  spicy  nut-brown  ale, 
With  stories  told  of  many  a  feat, 
How  Faery  Mab  the  junkets  eat.- 

was  pinched  and  pulled,  she  said; 
And  he,  by  Friar's  lantern,  led, 

.  Tells  how  the  drudging  goblin  sweat 
To  earn  his  cream-bowl  duly  set, 

^/When  in  one  night,  ere  glimpse  of  morn, 
His  shadowy  flail  hath  threshed  the  corn 
That  ten  day-labourers  couklnot  end; 
Then  lies  him  down,  the  lubber-fiend, 


L'ALLEGRO  67 


^ 

( 


And,  stretched  out  all 
s  Basks  at  the  fire  his  hairy  strength, 
And  crop-full  out  of  doors  he  flings, 
^  Ere  the  first  cock  his  matin  pings. 
115  Thus  done  the  tales,  to  bed  they  creep,  ^ 
(  By  whispering  winds  soon  lulled  asleep.!/ 
^Towered  cities  please  us  then,  v- 

XAnd  the  busy  hum  of  men,  -^y 

Where  throngs  of  knights  and  barons  bold, 

<***Zyi*&  ,.,  Jk*^&&r   ,1 

isoInsAveeds  of  peace,  nigh  friumpns  hold, 

With  storemmdies,  whose  bright  eyes 
Rain  influence,  and  judge  the  prize 
Of  wit  or  arms,  while  both  contend 
To  win  her  grace  whorn  jjll  <¥$rlmend. 
There  let  Hymeiaottappfer  ^ 
In  saffron  robe7"with  taper  clear, 
And  pomp,  and  feast,  and  revelry, 
With  mask  and  antique  pageantry; 
Such  sights  as  youthful  poets  dream 
130  On  summer  eves  by  haunted  stream. 
Then  to  the  well-trod  stage  anon> 
If  Jonson's  learned  sock  be  on, 
Or  sweetest  Shakespeare,  Fancy's  child, 
/Warble  his  native  wood-notes  wild, 
135  And  ever,  against  eating  cares, 
^Lap  me  in  soft  Lydian  airs, 
,  •  ''JtMarried  to  immor^^verse, 
jr   Such  as  the  Tmeetrngsoul  may  pierce, 
In  notes  with  many  a  winding  bout 


58  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Of  linked  sweetness  long  drawn  out  140 

With  wanton  heed  and  giddy  cunning, 

The  melting  voice  through  mazes  running, 

Untwisting  all  the  chains  that  tie 

The  hidden  soul  of  harmony; 

That  Orpheus'  self  may  heave  his  head  145 

From  golden  slumber  on  a  bed 

Of  heaped  Elysian  flowers,  and  hear 

Such  strains  as  would  have  won  the  ear 

Of  Pluto  to  have  quite  set  free 

His  half-regained  Eurydice.  iso 

These  delights  if  thou  canst  give,   / 

Mirth,  with  thee  I  mean  to  live. 


•^••* 


r\ 
IL  \PENSEROSO 

1  Hence,  vain,  deluding  Joys, 

The  brood  of  EoUywithout  father  bred! 
How  little  you  bested; 
Or  fill  the  fixM  mind  with  all  your  toys! 

6  Dwell  in  some,  idle  bram,    /? 

.    ,  e      .  X^^^ry  *^f^\^  \ 
And  fanciesvfond  with^gaudy  shapes) possess, 

As  thick  and  numberless 
As  the  gay  motes  that  people  the  sun-beams, 

Or  likest  ho  vermg*  dreams, 
«     The  fickle  pensi6ners*bf  Morpheus'  train. 

But,  hail!  thou  Goddess  sage  and  holy! 

Hail,  divinest  Melancholy! 
i  Whose  saintly/visage  is  too  bright 
i    ToTut^'trie1  sense  of  human  sigjjt, 
is  And  therefore  to  our 

O'erlaid  with  black,  staid  Wisdom's 
:  Black,  but  such  as  in  esteem 

Prince  Memnon's  sister  might  beseem, 

Or  that  starred  Ethiop  queen  that  strove 
20  To  set  her  beauty's  praise  above 

The  Sea-Nymph's,  and  their  powers  offended. 

Yet  thou  art  higher  far  descended:       , 

Thee  bright-haired  Vesta  long  of  yore  ) 

To  solitary  Saturn  bore; 
96  His*jfaughter  she;  in  Saturn's  reign, 


. 


60  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Such  mixture  was  not  held  a  stain. 

Oft|in  glim^nering|bowers)and  glades 

He  metiher,  and' in  scfcret  shades 

Of  woody  Ida's  inmost1  grove. 

Whilst  yet  there  was  no  fear  of  Jove.  so 

Come,  pensive  Nun,  devout  and  pure* 
-  Sober,  steadfast,  and  I  demure, 

All  hi  a  robejof  daijkest  grain, 
' Flowing  \witn  (majestic  tram, 

And  sable  stole^f  cypress  lawn  35 

Over  thy  ofcenr^houlders. drawn    ' 
e;  but  keep  thy  wonted  ^m^7^ 

With  even  step,  and  musing  gait, 

And  looks  commercing  with  the  skies. 

Thy  rapt  soul  sitting  in  thine  eyes:  40 

There,  held  hi  holy  passion  still, 

Forget  thyself  to  marble,  till 

With  a<gaal£aden  downward  cast 

Thou  fix  them  on  the  earth  as  fast. 

And  join  with  thee  calm  Peace  and  Quiet,  45 

Spare  Fast,  that  oft  with  gods  doth  diet, 

And  hears  the  Muses  in  a  ring 

Aye  round  about  Jove's  altar  sing; 

And  add  to  these  retired  Leisure, 

That  in  trim  gardens  takes  his  pleasure;  sc 

But,  first  and  chief est,  with  thee  bring 

Him  that  yon  soars  on  golden  wing, 
^  Guiding  the  fiery-wheeled  throne, 

The  Cherub  Contemplation; 


IL  PENSEROSO  61 

55  And  the  mute  Silence  hist  along, 
/X'Less  Philomel  will  deign  a  song,& 

In  her  sweetest  saddest  plight,!*^ 

Smoothing  the  rugged  brow  of  Night, -f** 

While  Cynthia  checks  her  dragon  yoke 
yeo  Gently  o'er  th'  accustomed  oak. 
;   Sweet  bird,  that  shunn'st  the  noise  of  folly, 

Most  musical,  most  melancholy! 
*-  Thee,  chauntress,  oft  the  woods  among 

I  woo,  to  hear  thy  even-song; 
es  And,  missing  thee,  I  walk  unseen 

On  the  dry  smooth-shaven  green,-^ 

To  behold  the  wandering  moon,  -^ 

Riding  near  her  highest  noon, 

Like  one  that  had  been  led  astray 
70  Through  the  heaven's  wide  pathless  way,  "" 

And  oft,  as  if  her  head  she  bowed, 

Stooping  through  a  fleecy  cloud.  ~ 

Oft,  on  a  plat  of  rising  ground, 

I  hear  the  far-off  curfew  sound, 
75  Over  some  wide-watered  shore,  "  ^* 
^Swinging  slow  with  sullen  roar; 
y-Or,  if  the  air  will  not  permit, 

Some  still  removed  place  will  fit, 

Where  glowing  embers  through  the  room 
so  Teach  light  to  counterfeit  a  gloom, 
-  Far  from  all  resort  of  mirth,    — *• "*-** 

Save  the  cricket  on  the  hearth, 

Or  the  bellman's  drowsy  charm     +*1** 


62  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

To  bless  the  doors  from  nightly  harm. 
Or  let  my  lamp,  at  midnight  hour, 
Be  seen  in  some  high  lonely  tower, 
Where  I  may  oft  outwatch  the  Bear, 
With  thrice  great  Hermes,  or 
The  spirit  of  Plato,  to  unfold 
What  worlds  or  what  vast  regions  hold 
The  immortal  mind  that  hath  forsook 
Her  mansion  in  this  fleshly  nook; 
And  of  those  demons  that  are  found 
In  fire,  air,  flood,  or  underground, 
Whose  power  hath  a  true  consent 
With  planet  or  with  element. 
Sometime  let  gorgeous  Tragedy 
In  sceptred  pall  come  sweeping  by, 
Presenting  Thebes,  or  Pelops'  line, 

Or  the  tale  of  Troy  divine, 
r  what  (though  rare)  of  later  age 
Ennobled  hath  the  buskined  stage. 
But,  0  sad  Virgin!  that  thy  power 
Might  raise  Musseus  from  his  bower; 
Or  bid  the  soul  of  Orpheus  sing 
Such  notes  as,  warbled  to  the  string, 
Drew  iron  tears  down  Pluto's  cheek, 
And  made  Hell  grant  what  love  did  seek; 
Or  call  up  him  that  left  half  told 
The  story  of  Cambuscan  bold, 
Of  Camball,  and  of  Algarsife, 
And  who  had  Canace  to  wife, 


TJ*  PFNSEKOSO 

That  owned  the  virtuous  ring  and  glass, 
And  of  the  wondrous  horse  of  brass 

us  On  which  the  Tartar  king  did  ride; 
And  if  aught  else  great  bards  beside 
In  sage  and  solemn  tunes  have  sung, 
Of  tourneys,  and  of  trophies  hung,     , 
Of  forests,  and  enchantments  drear, 

120  Where  more  is  meant  then  meets  the  ear. 
Thus,  .^"  me  m  thy  Pa^e  career, 

appear, 

Not  tnckeoand  frounced,  as  she  was  wont 
With  the  Attic  boy  to  hunt,  —  —  — 

125  But  kerchieft  in  a  comely  cloud,  - 
While  rocking  winds  are  piping  loud, 
Or  ushered  with  a  shower  still, 
When  the  gust  hath  blown  his  fill,- 


\  Ending  on  4het  rustling  Jeave 

1T7UU          •  *YWl   fcL**TV   ^"A*  '       " 

130  With  minute-drops  from  on  the  eave 

,  when  the  sun  begins  to  fling 
His  flaring  beams,  me,  Goddess,  bring 
To  arched  walks  of  twilight  groves,  - 
And  shadows  brown,  that  Sylvan  loves, 

135  Of  pine,  or  monumental  oak, 
Where  the  rude  axe  with  heaved  stroke's- 
'Was  never  heard  the  nymphs  to  daunt, 
for  fright  them  from  their  hallowed  haunt*) 

;  There  in  close  covert,  by  some  brook, 

i40  Where  no  profaner  eye  may  look, 

\  Hide  me  from  day's  garish  eye, 


6*  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

^*»  While  the  bee  with  honeyed  thigh, 
That  at  her  flowery  work  doth  sing, 
And  the  waters  murmuring, 

s  With  such  consort  as  they  keep,  I4g 

^    Entice  the  dewy-feathered  Sleep. 

And  let  some  strange  mysterious  dream 
^Wave  at  his  wings,  in  airy  stream 
Of  lively  portraiture  displaced, 
"Softly  on  my  eyelids  laid;  .  15C 

And,  as  I  wake,  sweet  music  breathe 
Above,  about,  or  underneath, 
Sent  by  some  Spirit  to  mortals  good, 
Or  the  unseen  Genius  of  the  wood. 
-But  let  my  due  feet  never  fail  ^ 

To  walk  the  studious  cloister's  pale, 
AII          ;  i      vi      \~-K  itr  i  rf-r*-     ,. 
And  love  the  high  emuowed  roof, 


AncFstonea  windows  richly  digrit, 

'asting  a  dim  religious  light.  16C 

There  let  the  pealing  organ  blow, 
To  the  full-voiced  quire  below, 
In  service  high  and  anthems  clear, 
As  may  with  sweetness,  through  mine  ear, 
Dissolve  me  into  ecstasies,  165 

L.  And  bring  all  Heaven  before  mine  eyes. 
pAnd  may  at  last  my  weary  age 

Find  out  the  peaceful  hermitage. 

t^^u.  ^J^ww  r\  <^  K^CSS^ 
Ine  hairy  gown  and  mossy  cell, 

•••  •  '•'    "gr  «/  '  A      ^  Q-JX-  f^ 

Where  I  may  sit  and  rightly  spell  o#*^*  **  170 


IL  PENSEROSO  65 


every  st^r  that  heaven  doth  shew, 
And  every  herb  that  sips  the  dew, 
Till  old  experience  do  attain 
To  something  like  prophetic  strain. 
35  These  pleasures,  Melancholy,  give: 
.And  I  with  thee  will  choose  to  live. 


COMUS 

A  MASQUE  PRESENTED  AT  LUDLOW  CASTLE,  1634, 

BEFORE  THE  EARL  OF  BRIDGEWATER,  THEN 

PRESIDENT  OF  WALES 

THE  PERSONS 

The  ATTENDANT  SPIRIT,  afterwards  in  the  habit  of 

THYRSIS. 

COMUS,  with  his  crew. 
THE  LADY. 
FIRST  BROTHER. 
SECOND  BROTHER. 
SABRINA,  the  Nymph. 

The  Chief  Persons  which  presented  were 
The  LORD  BRACKLEY; 
Mr.  THOMAS  EGERTON,  his  brother; 
The  Lady  ALICE  EGERTON. 

The  First  Scene  Discovers  a  Wild  Wood 
The  ATTENDANT  SPIRIT  descends  or  enters 

BEFORE  the  starry  threshold  of  Jove's  court 

My  mansion  is,  where  those  immortal  shapes 

Of  bright  aerial  spirits  live  insphered 

In  regions  mild  of  calm  and  serene  air, 

Above  the  smoke  and  stir  of  this  dim  spot  \ 

66 


COMUS  67 

Which  men  call  Earth,  and,  with  low-thoughted 

care, 

Confined  and  pestered  in  this  pinfold  here, 
Strive  to  keep  up  a  frail  and  feverish  being, 
Unmindful  of  the  crown  that  Virtue  gives, 

10  After  this  mortal  change,  to  her  true  servants 
Amongst  the  enthroned  gods  on  sainted  seats. 
Yet  some  there  be  that  by  due  steps  aspire 
To  lay  their  just  hands  on  that  golden  key 
That  opes  the  palace  of  eternity. 

15  To  such  my  errand  is;  and,  but  for  such, 
I  would  not  soil  these  pure  ambrosial  weeds 
With  the  rank  vapours  of  this  sin-worn  mould. 
But  to  my  task.     Neptune,  besides  the  sway 
Of  every  salt  flood  and  each  ebbjng  strain,* 

20  Took  in  by  lot,  'twixt  high  and  neffier 
Imperial  rule  of  all  the  sea-girt  isles 
That,  like  to  rich  and  various  gems,  inlay 
The  unadorned  bosom  of  the  deep; 
Which  he,  to  grace  his  tributary  gods, 

25  By  course  commits  to  several  government, 
And  gives   them  leave   to   wear  their   sapphire 

crowns 

And  wield  their  little  tridents.     But  this  Isle, 
The  greatest  and  the  best  of  all  the  main, 
He  quarters  to  his  blue-haired  deities; 

30  And  all  this  tract  that  fronts  the  falling  sun 
4^ioble  Peer  of  mickle  trust  and  power  — "~ 
Has  in  his  charge,  with  tempered  awe  to  guide 


68  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

An  old  and  haughty  nation,  proud  in  arms: 
Where  his  fair  offspring,  nursed  in  princely  lore, 
I  Are  coming  to  attend  their  father's  state,  35 

¥  And  new-intrusted  sceptre.     But  their  way 
/Lies  through  the  perplexed  paths  of  this  drear 

wood, 

The  nodding  horror  of  whose  shady  brows 
Threats  the  forlorn  and  wandering  passenger; 
And  here  their  tender  age  might  suffer  peril,          48 
But  that,  by  quick  command  from  sovran  Jove, 
I  was  dispatched  for  their  defence  and  "guard: 
And  listen  why;  for  I  will  tell  you  now 
What  never  yet  was  heard  in  tale  or  song, 
From  old  or  modern  bard,  in  hall  or  bower.  45 

Bacchus,  that  first  from  out  the  purple  grape 
"Crushed  the  sweet  poison  of  misused  wine, 
I  After  the  Tuscan  mariners  transformed, 
/  Coasting  the  Tyrrhene  shore,  as  the  winds  listed, 
>0n  Circe's  island  fell.     (Who  knows  not  Circe,     50 
^SThe  daughter  of  the  Sun,  whose  charmed  cup 
Whoever  tasted  lost  his  upright  shape, 
And  downward  fell  into  a  grovelling  swine?) 
This  Nymph,  that  gazed  upon  his  clustering  locks, 
With  ivy  berries  wreathed,  and  his  blithe  youth,     55 
Had  by  him,  ere  he  parted  thence,  a  son 
I  Much  like  his  father,  but  his  mother  more, 
\Whom   therefore   she   brought   up,    and    Comus 

named: 
Who,  ripe  and  frolic  of  his  full-grown  age, 


COMUS  69 

eo  Roving  the  Celtic  and  Iberian  fields, 
At  last  betakes  him  to  this  ominous  wood, 
And,  in  thick  shelter  of  black  shades  imbowered, 
Excels  his  mother  at  her  mighty  art; 
Offering  to  every  weary  traveller 

65  His  orient  liquor  in  a  crystal  glass, 
To  quench  the  drouth  of  Phoebus;  which  as  they 

taste 
(For   most   do   taste   through  fond  intemperate 

thirst), 

Soon  as  the  potion  works,  their  human  count  'nance. 
The  express  resemblance  of  the  gods,  is  changed 

70  Into  some  brutish  form  of  wolf  or  bear, 
Or  ounce  or  tiger,  hog,  or  bearded  goat, 
All  other  parts  remaining  as  they  were. 
And  they,  so  perfect  is  their  misery, 
Not  once  perceive  their  foul  disfigurement, 

75  But  boast  themselves  more  comely  than  before, 
And  all  their  friends  and  native  home  forget, 
To  roll  with  pleasure  in  a  sensual  sty. 
Therefore,  when  any  favoured  of  high  Jove 
Chances  to  pass  through  this  adventurous  glade, 

so  Swift  as  the  sparkle  of  a  glancing  star 
I  shoot  from  heaven,  to  give  him  safe  convoy, 
ASJLQW  I  do.     But  first  I  must  put  off 
These  my  sky-robes,  spun  out  of  Iris'  woof, 
And  take  the  weeds  and  likeness  of  a  swain 

85  That  to  the  service  of  this  house  belongs, 
Who,  with  his  soft  pipe  and  smooth-dittied  song, 


70  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

/  \ 

Well  knows  to  still  ;the  wild  winds  when  they  roar, 
And  hush  the  waving  woods;  nor  of  less  faith, 
And  in  this  office  of  his  mountain  watch 
Likeliest,  and  nearest  to  the  present  aid  gc 

Of  this  occasion.     But  I  hear  the  tread 
Of  hateful  steps;  I  must  be  viewless  now. 

COMUS  enters ,  with  a  charming-rod  in  one  hand,  his 
glass  in  the  other:  with  him  a  rout  of  monsters, 
headed  like  sundry  sorts  of  wild  beasts,  but  other- 
wise  like  men  and  women,  their  apparel  glistering. 
They  come  in  making  a  riotous  and  unruly  noise, 
with  torches  in  their  hands. 

Comus.  The  star  that  bids  the  shepherd  fold, 
Now  the  top  of  heaven  doth  hold; 
Ami  the  gilded  car  of_day_  95 

His  glowing  axle  doth  allay 
In  the  steep  Atlantic  stream; 
And  the  slope  sun  his  upward  beam 
Shoots  against  the  dusky  pole, 
Pacing  toward  the  other  goal  100 

Of  his  chamber  in  the  east. 
Meanwhile,  welcome  joy  and  feast, 
Midnight  shout  and  revelry, 
Tipsy  dance  and  jollity. 

Braid  your  locks  with  rosy  twine,  leg 

Dropping  odours,  dropping  wine. 
Rigor  now  is  gone  to  bed; 
And  Advice  with  scrupulous  head, 


COMUS  71 


Strict  Age,  and  sour  Severity, 
110  With  their  grave  saws,  in  slumber  lie. 

We,  that  are  of  purer  fire, 

Imitate  the  starry  quire, 

Who,  in  their  nightly  watchful  spheres,     I 

Lead  in  swift  round  the  months  and  years. 
us  The  sounds  and  seas,  with  all  their  finny  drove, 

Now  to  the  moon  in  wavering  morrice  move; 

And  on  the  tawny  sands  and  shelves 

Trip  the  pert  fairies  and  the  dapper  elves; 

By  dimpled  brook  and  fountain-brim, 
120  The  wood-nymphs,  decked  with  daisies  trim, 

Their  merry  wakes  and  pastimes  keep : 

What  hath  night  to  do  with  sleep? 

Night  hath  better  sweets  to  prove; 

Venus  now  wakes,  and  wakens  Love. 
125  Come,  let  us  our  rites  begin; 

;Tis  only  daylight  that  makes  sin, 

Which  these  dun  shades  will  ne'er  report. 
(Hail,  goddess  of  nocturnal  sport, 

Dark- veiled  Cotytto,  to  whom  the  secret  flame 
130 Of  midnight  torches  burns!  mysterious  dame, 

That  ne'er  art  called  but  when  the  dragon  womb 

Of  Stygian  darkness  spets  her  thickest  gloom, 

And  makes  one  blot  of  all  the  air! 

Stay  thy  cloudy  ebon  chair, 
135  Wherein  thou  ridest  with  Hecat',  and  befriend 

Us  thy  vowed  priests,  till  utmost  end 

Of  all  thy  dues  be  done,  and  none  left  out; 


72  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Ere  the  blabbing  eastern  scout, 

The  nice  Morn  on  the  Jndian_steep, 

From  her  cabined  loop-hole  peep,  no 

And  to  the  tell-tale  Sun  descry 

Our  concealed  solemnity. 

Come,  knit  hands,  and  beat  the  ground 

In  a  light  fantastic  round.) 

The  Measure 

Break  off,  break  off!    I  feel  the  different  pace       145 
Of  some  chaste  footing  near  about  this  ground. 
Run  to  your  shrouds  within  these  brakes    and 

trees; 

Our  number  may  affright.     Some  virgin  sure 
(For  so  I  can  distinguish  by  mine  art) 
Benighted  in  these  woods!    Now  to  my  charms,     150 
And  to  my  wily  trains:  I  shall  ere  long 
Be  well  stocked  with  as  fair  a  herd  as  grazed 
About  my  mother  Circe.     Thus  I  hurl 
My  dazzling  spells  into  the  spongy  air, 
Of  power  to  cheat  the  eye  with  blear  illusion,         155 
And  give  it  false  preserftments,  lest  the  place 
And  my  quaint  hffiitsbreed  astonishment, 
And  put  the  damsel  to  suspicious  flight; 
Which  must  not  be,  for  that's  against  my  course. 
I,  under  fair  pretence  of  friendl^ends,  ieo 

And  well-placed  words  of  glozing  courtesy, 
Baited  with  reasons  not  unplausible, 
Wind  me  into  the  easy-hearted  man, 


COMUS  73 

And  hug  him  into  snares.    When  once  her  eyj 
165  Hath  met  the  virtue  of  this  magic  dust, 
I  shall  appear  some  hamiless  villager, 


Whom  thrift  keeps  <up*atx)ut  his  country  g^ar. 
But  here  she  comes;  I  fairly  step  aside, 
And  hearken,  if  I  may  her  business  hear. 

The  LADY  enters 

170     Lady.  This  way  the  noise  was,  if  mine  ear  be 

true, 

My  best  guide  now.     Methought  it  was  the  sound 
Of  riot  and  ill-managed  merriment, 
Such  as  the  jocund  flute  or  gamesome  pipe 
Stirs  up  among  the  loose  unlettered  hinds, 

175  When,  for  their  teeming  flocks  and  granges  full, 
In  wanton^ dance  they  praise  the  bounteous  Pan, 
And  thank  the  gods  amiss.     I  should  be  loth 
To  meet  the  rudeness  and  swilled  insolence 
Of  such  late  wassailers;  yet,  oh!  where  else 

iso  Shall  I  inform  my  unacquainted  feet 
In  the  blind  mazes  of  this  tangled  wood? 
My  brothers,  when  they  saw  me  wearied  out 
With  this  long  way,  resolving  here  to  lodge 
(Under  the  spreading  favour  of  these  pines,) 

185  Stepped,  as  they  said,  to  the  next  thicket-side 
To  bring  me  berries,  or  such  cooling  fruit 
As  the  kind  hospitable  woods  provide. 
They  left  me  then,  when  the  grey-hooded Even, 
Like  a  sad  votarist  in  palmer's  weed, 


74  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Rose  from  the  hindmost  wheels  of  Phoebus' wain.  190 
But  where  they  are,  and  why  they  came  not  back, 
Is  now  the  labour  of  my  thoughts.     Tis  likeliest 
They  had  engaged  their  wandering  steps  too  far; 
And  envious  darkness,  ere  they  could  return, 
Had  stole  them  from  me.     Else,  0  thievish  Night,  195 
Why  shouldst  thou,  but  for  some  felonk)ii§  end, 
In  thy  dark  lantern  thus  close  up  the  stars 
That  Nature  hung  in  heaven,  and  filled  their  lamps 
With  everlasting  oil  to  give  due  light 
/To  the  misled  and  lonely  traveller?  )  200 

This  is  the  place,  as  well  as  I  may  guess, 
Whence  even  now  the  tumult  of  loud  mirth 
Was  rife,  and  Pe^££^^_^Y  listening  ear; 
Yet  nought  but  smgJ^oa^^ss  do  I  find. 
What  might  this  be?    A  thousand  fantasies  205 

Begin  to  throng  into  my  memory, 
Of  calling  shapes,  and  beckoning  shadows  dire, 
And  airy  tongues  that  syllable  men's  names 
On  sands  and  shores  and  desert  wildernesses. 
These  thoughts  may  startle  well,  but  not  astound  210 
The  virtuous  mind,  that  ever  walks  attended 
By  a  strong-siding  champion,  Conscience. 
Oh,    welcome,    pure-eyed    Ijjith.    white-handed 

Hoge, 

Thou  hovering  angel  girt  with  golden  wings, 
And  thou,  unblemished  form  of  Chastity!  215 

I  see  ye  visibly,  and  now  believe 
That  He,  the  Supreme  Good,  to  whom  all  things  ill  • 


COMUS  75 

Are  but  as  slavish  officers  of  vengeance, 
Would  send  a  glistering  guardian,  if  need  were, 

220  To  keep  my  life  and  honour  unassailed .... 
Was  I  deceived,  or  did  a  sable  cloud 
(Turn  forth  her  silver  lining  on  the  night?  \ 
I  did  not  err:  there  does  a  sable  cloud 
Turn  forth  her  silvei  lining  on  the  night, 

225  And  casts  a  gleam  over  this  tufted  grove.") 
I  can  not  hallo  to  my  brothers,  but 
Such  noise  as  I  can  make  to  be  heard  farthest 
I'll  venture;  for  my  new-enlivened  spirits 
Prompt  me,  and  they  perhaps  are  not  far  off. 

Song 

230 Sweet  Echo,  sweetest  nYffiP]iithat  liv'st  unseen 

Within  thy  ajry^lhdl^^ 

«/     j  if    i  —  •*       ^^^ 

By  slow  Meander's  marg&nt*green, 
And  in  the  violet-embroidered  vale 
Where  the  love-lorn  nightingale 
235  Nightly  to  thee  her  sad  song  mourneth  well: 
Canst  thou  not  tell  me  of  a  gentle  pair 
That  likest  thy  Narcissus  are? 

0,  if  thou  have 

Hid  them  in  some  flowery  cave, 
240  Tell  me  bi^where,^ 

Sweet  Queen  ofTParley,Daughter  of  the  Sphere! 
So  may'st  thou  be  translated  to  the  skies, 
And  give  resounding  grace  to  all  Heaven's  har- 
monies. 


76  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Comus.  Can    any    mortal   mixture   of   earth's 

mould 

Breathe  such  divine  enchanting  ravishment?          345 
Sure  something  holy  lodges  in  that  breasi, 
And  with-ihese  raptures  moves  the  vocal  air 
To  testify^  hidden  residence. 
How  sweetly  did  they  float  upon  the  wings 
Of  silence,  through  the  empty-vaulted  night,          250 
At  everylallsmoothing  the  raven  down 
Of  darkness  till  it  smiled!    I  have  oft  heard 
My  mother  Circe  with  the  Siren£*three, 
Amidst  the  flowery-kirtled  Naiades, 
Culling  their  potent  herbs  and  baleful  drugs,  255 

Who,  as  they  sung,  would  take  the  prisoned  soul, 
And  lap  it  in  Elysium:  Scylla  wept, 
And  chid  her  barking  waves  into  attention, 
And  fell  Charybdis  murmured  soft  applause. 
Yet  they  in  pleasing  slumber  lulled  the  sense,          see 
And  in  sweet  madness  robbed  it  of  itself; 
But  such  a  sacred  and  home-felt  delight, 
Such  sober  certainty  of  waking  bliss, 
I  never  heard  till  now.     I'll  speak  to  her, 
And  she  shall  be  my  queen. — Hail,  foreign  wonder! 265 
Whom,    certain,   these   rough   shades   did   never 

breed, 

Unless  the  goddess  that  in  rural  shrine 
Dwell'st  here  with  Pan  or  Sylvan,  by  blest  song 
Forbidding  every  bleak  unkindly  fog 
To  touch  the  prosperous  growth  of  this  tall  wood.  270 


COMUS  77 

Lady.  Nay,  gentle  shepherd    111  is  lost  that 

praise 

That  is  addressed  to  unattending  ei 
Not  any  boast  of  skill,  but  extigmeshift 
How  to  regain  my  severed  company, 
275  Compelled  me  to  awake  the  courteous  Echo 
To  give  me  answer  from  her  mossy  couch. 

»         Comus.  What  chance,  good  Lady,  hath  bereft 
you  thus? 

Lady.  Dim  darkness,  and  this  leavy  labyrinth* 
Comus.  Could    that    divide    you    from    near- 
ushering  guides?  ^f***f  ±>**™*<*^***&*i 
280     Lady.  They  left  me  weary  on  a  grassy  turf. 
Comus.  By  falsehood,  or  discourtesy,  or  why? 
Lady.  To  seek  i'  the  valley  some  cool  friendly 

spring. 
Comus.  And  left  your  fair  side  all  unguarded, 

Lady? 
.Lady.  They  were  but  twain,  and  purposed  quick 

return. 
285     Comus.  Perhaps    forestalling    night   prevented 

them. 

Lady.  How  easy  my  misfortune  is  to  hit! 
Comus.  Imports  their  loss,  beside  thejpresent 
npprl?     *L  fcflu^*  -te~*-»    vv^%>*^t>^^ 

llCt/Ll.       *J*     ****** 

Lady.  No  less  than  if  I  should  my  brothers  lose. 
Comus.  Were  they  of  manly  prime,  or  youthful 

bloom? 
29c     Lady.  As  smooth  as  Hebe's  their  unrazored  lips 


78  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Comus.  Two  such  I  saw,  what  time  the  laboured 

ox 

In  his  loose  traces  from  the  furrow  came, 
And  the  swinked  hedger  at  his  supper  sat. 
I  saw  them  under  a  green  mantling  vine, 
That  crawls  along  the  side  of  yon  small  hill,  295 

Plucking  ripe  clusters  from  the  tender  shoots: 

^•^^fcAxV^ 

Their  port  wafc  more  than  human,  as  they  stood. 

I  took  it  for  a  faery  vision 

Of  some  gay  creatures  of  the  ele$"en% 

That  in  the  colours  of  the  rainbow  live,  soo 

And  play  i'  the  *pn^ea  clouds.    I  was  awe- 

strook, 

And,  as  I  passed,  I  worshiped.    If  those  you  seek, 
It  were  a  journey  like  the  path  to  Heaven 
To  help  you  find  them. 
•  Lady.  Gentle  villager, 

What  readiest  way  would  bring  me  to  that  place?  305 

Comus.  Due  west  it  rises  from  this  shrubby 
point. 

Lady.  To  find  that  out,  good  shepherd,  I  sup- 
pose, 

In  such  a  scant  allowance  of  star-light, 
Would  overtask  the  best  land-pilot's  art, 
Without  the  sure  guess  of  well-practised  feet.         ao 

Comus.  I  know  each  lane,  and  every  alley  green,  • 
Dingle,  or  bushy  dell,  of  this  wild  wood, 

QJ- «t.-nj»\i      M*(  f}\'~~*f~ 

And  every  oosky  bffnrnTrom  side  to  side, 
My  daily  walks  and  ancient  neighbourhood; 


COMUS  79 


315  AncLifYOur  stray  attendance  be  yet  lodged, 
Or^nromwithin  these  limits,  I  shall  kiiow 
Ere  morrow  wake,  or  the  low-roosted  lark 
From  her  thatched  pallet  rouse.    If  otherwise, 
I  can  conduct  you,  Lady,  to  a  low 

320  But  loyal  cottage,  where  you  may  be  safe 
Till  further  quest. 

Lady.  Shepherd,  I  take  thy  word, 

And  trust  thy  honest-offered  courtesy; 
Which  oft  is  sooner  found  in  lowly  sheds, 
With  smoky  rafters,  than  in  tapestry  halls 

325  And  courts  of  princes,  where  it  first  was  named, 
And  yet  is  most  pretended.^  In  a  place 

|*1K<I|^^  secure, 

I  cannot  be,  that  I  should  fear  to  changei 
Eye  me,  blest  Providence,  and  sqtferarriy  trial 

330  To  my  proportioned  strength!    Shepherd,  lead  on, 

The     TWO     BROTHERS 

Eld.  Bro.  Unmuffle,  ye  faint  stars;  and  thou. 


ThafwonTsttoTove  the  traveller's  benison, 
Stoop  thy  pale  visage  through  an  amber  cloud, 
And  disinherit  Chaos,  that  reigns  here 
335  In  double  night  of  darkness  and  of  shades; 
Or,  if  your  influence  be  quite  dammed  up 
With  black  usurping  mists,  some  gentle  taper, 
Though  a  rush-candle  from  the  wicker  hole 
Of  some  clay  habitation,  visit  us 


80  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

With  thy  long  levelled  rule  of  streaming  light,      340 
And  thou  shalt  be  our  Star  of  Arcady, 
Or  Tyrian  Cynosure. 

Sec.  Bro.  Or,  if  our  eyes 

Be  barred  that  happiness,  might  we  but  hear 
The  folded  flocks,  penned  in  their  wattled  cotes, 
Or  sound  of  pastoral  reed  with  oaten  stops,  345 

Or  whistle  from  the  lodge,  or  village  cock 
Count  the  night-watches  to  his  feathery  dames, 
'Twould  be  some  solace  yet,  some  little  cheering, 
In  this  close  dungeon  of  innumerous  boughs. 
But,  oh,  that  hapless  virgin,  our  lost  sister!  sso 

Where  may  she  wander  now,  whither  betake  her 
From   the   chill   dew,   amongst   rude   burs   and 

thistles? 

Perhaps  some  cold  bank  is  her  bolster  now, 
Or  'gainst  the  rugged  bark  of  some  broad  elm 
Leans  her  unpillowed  head,  fraught  with  sad  fears.  355 
What  if  in  wild  amazement  and  affright, 
Or,  while  we  speak,  within  the  direful  grasp 
Of  savagejhunger,  or  of  savage  heat?  ^       JUS^A**" 

Eld.  Bro.  Peace,  brother:  be  not  over-exquisite 
To  cast  the  fashion  of  uncertain  evils;  seo 

For,  grant  they  be  so,  while  they  rest  unknown, 
What  need  a  man  forestall  his  date  of  grief, 
And  run  to  meet  what  he  would  most  avoid? 
Or,  if  they  be  but  false  alarms  of  fear, 
How  bitter  is  such  self-delusion!  *  365 

I  do  not  think  my  sister  so  tojeek,      ^  ^ 


COMUS  81 


Or  so  unprincipled  in  virtue's  book, 

And  the  sweet  peace  that  goodness  bosoms  ever, 

As  that  the  suf|le  want  of  light  and  noise 

370  (Not  being  in  danger,  as  I  trust  she  is  not) 

Could  stir  the  constant  mood  of  her  calm  thoughts, 
And  put  them  into  misbecoming  plight. 
/'  Virtue  could  see  to  do  what  Virtue  would 
*••  By  her  own  radiant  light,  though  sun  and  moon 

875  Were  in  the  flat^ea  sunk.    And  Wisdom's  self 
Oftl$eksjto  sweet  retired  solitude, 
Where,  with  her  best  nurse,  Contempjation, 
She  plumes  her  feathers,  and  lets  grow  her  wings, 
That,  in  the  various  bustle  of  resort, 

sso  Were  all  to-ruffled,  and  sometimes  impaired. 
He  that  has  light  within  his  own  clear  breast 
May  sit  i'  the  centre,  and  enjoy  bright  day: 
But  he  that  hides  a  dark  soul  and  foul  thoughts 
Benighted  walks  under  the  mid-day  sun; 

885  Himself  is  his  own  dungeon. 

Sec.Bro.  Tis  most  true 

That  musing  meditation  most  affra^ 
The  pensive  secrecy  of  desert  cell, 
Far  from  the  cheerful  haunt  of  men  and  herds, 
And  sits  as  safe  as  in  a  senate-house; 

890  For  who  would  rob  a  hermit  of  his  weeds, 
His  few  books,  or  his  beads,  or  maple  dish, 
Or  do  his  gray  hairs  any  violence? 
But  Beauty,  like  the  fair  Hesperian  tree 
Laden  with  blooming  gold,  had  need  the  guard 


82  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

^j  ^^L- 

Of  dragon-watch  with  unenchanted  eye 
To  save  her  blossoms,  and  defend  her  fruit 
From  the  rash  hand  of  bold  Incontinence.  ,. 
JYou  may  as  well  spread  out  the  unsunned  heaps 
/Of  miser's  treasure  by  an  outlaw's  den, 
/  And  tell  me  it  is  safe,  as  bid  me  hope  400 

Danger  will  wink  on  Opportunity, 
And  let  a  single  helpless  maiden  pass 
Uninjured  in  this  wild  surrounding  waste. 
Of  night  or  loneliness  it  recks  me  not; 
I  fear  the  dread  [  eygnts,  that  dog  them  both,          405 
Lest  some  ill-greetmgtouch  attempt  the  person 
Of  ourt^fowne^^is^erT  ' 

Eld.  Bro.  I  do  not,  brother, 

Infer  as  if  I  thought  my  sister's  state 
Secure  without  all  doubt  or  controversy; 
Yet,  where  an  equal  poise  of  hope  and  fear  410 

Does  arbitrate  the  event,  my  nature  is 
That  I  incline  to  hope  rather  than  fear, 
And  gladly  banish  squint  suspicion. 
My  sister  is  not  so  defenceless  left 
As  you  imagine;  she  has  a  hidden  strength,  4is 

Which  you  remember  not. 

Sec.  Bro.  What  hidden  strength, 

Unless  the  strength  of  Heaven,  if  you  mean  that? 

Eld.  Bro.  I  mean  that  too,  but  yet  a  hidden 

strength, 

Which,  if  Heaven  gave  it,  may  be  termed  her  own. 
Tis  chastity,  my  brother,  chastity;  420 


OOMUS  83 

She  that  has  that  is  clad  in  complete  steej» 
And,  like  a  quivered  nymph  with  arrows  keen, 
May  trace  huge  forests,  and  unharboured  heaths, 
Infamous  hills,  and  sandy  perilous  wilds; 

425  Where,  through  the  sacred  rays  of  chastity, 
No  savage  fierce,  bandite,  or  mountaineer, 
Will  dare  to  soil  her  virgin  purity. 
Yea,  there  where  very  desolation  dwells, 
(By  grots  and  caverns  shagged  with  horrid  shades, 

430  She  may  pass  on  with  unblenchedL 


Be  it  not  done  in  pride,  or  in  presumption. 
Some  say  no  evil  thing  that  walks  hy  nighf-j 
In  fog  or  fire,  by  lake  or  moorish  fen, 
Blue  meagre  hag,  or  stubborn  unlaid  ghost, 

435  That  breaks  his  magic  chains  at  curfew  time, 
No  goblin  or  swart  faery  of  the  mine, 
Hath  hurtful  power  o^erjyug  virginity, 
Do  ye  believe  me  yet,  or  shall  I  call 
Antiquity  from  the  old  schools  of  Greece 

440  To  testify  the  arms  of  chastity? 

Hence  had  the  huntress  Dian  her  dread  bow, 
Fair  silver-shafted  queen  for  ever  chaste, 
Wherewith  she  tamed  the  brinded  lioness 
And  spotted  mountain-pard,  but  set  at  nought 

445  The  frivolous  bolt  of  Cupid;  gods  and  men 

Feared  her  sjgrn  frown,  and  shewas  queen  o'  the 

woods. 

What  was  that  snaky-headed  Gorgon  shield 
That  wise  Minerva  wore,  unconquered  virgin, 


84  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Wherewith  she  freezed  her  foes -to  congealed  stone, 
But  rigid  looks  of^chaste  austerity^  450 

And  noble  grace  that  dashed  brute  violence 
With  sudden  adoration  and  blank  awe? 
So  dear  to  Heaven  is  saintly  chastity 

'  That,  when  a  soul  is  found  sincerely  so, 
A  thousand  liveried  angels  lackey  her,  455 

•  Driving  far  off  each  thing  of  sin  and  guilt, 
And  in  clear  dream  and  solemn  vision 
Tell  her  of  things  that  no  gross  ear  can  hear; 
Till  oft  converse  with  heavenly  habitants 
Begin  to  cast  a  beam  on  the  outward  shape,          480 
The  unpolluted  temple  of  the  mind, 
And  turns  it  by  degrees  to  the  soul's  essence, 
Till  all  be  made  immortal.     But,  when  lust, 

/By  unchaste  looks,  loose  gestures,  and  foul  talk, 
But  most  by  lewd  and  lavish  act  of  sin,  465 

Letsjn  defilement  to  the  inward  parts, 
The  souLgrows  clotted  by  contagion, 
Imbodies,  and  imbrutes,  till  she  quite  |pse 
The  divine  property  of  her  first  being. 
Such  are  those  thick  and  gloomy  shadows  damp      470 
Oft  seen  in  charnel-vaults  and  sepulchres^; 
Lingering  and  sitting  by  a  new-made  grave, 
As  loth  to  leave  the  body  that  it  loved, 
And  linked  itself  by  carnal  sensualty 
To  a  degenerate  and  degraded  state.  475 

Sec.  Bro.  How  charming  is  divine  Philosophy! 
Not  harsh  and  crabbed,  as  dull  fools  suppose, 


COMUS  85 


But  musical  as  is  Apollo's  lute, 
And  a  perpetual  feast  of  nectared  sweets, 
480  Where  no  crude  surfeit  reigns. 

Eld.  Bro.  List!  list!  I  hear 

Some  far-off  hallo  break  the  silent  air. 

Sec.  Bro.  Methought  so  too;  what  should  it  be? 
Eld.  Bro.  For  certain, 

Either  some  one,  like  us,  night-foundered  here, 
Or  else  some  neighbour  woodman,  or,  at  worst, 
485  Some  roving  robber  calling  to  his  fellows. 

Sec.  Bro.  Heaven  keep  my  sister!    Again,  again, 

and  near! 
Best  draw,  and  stand  upon  our  guard. 

Eld.  Bro.  I'll  hallo. 

If  he  be  friendly,  he  comes  well;  if  not, 
Defence  is  a  good  cause,  and  Heaven  be  for  us! 

The  ATTENDANT  SPIRIT,  habited  like  a  shepherd 
490  That  hallo  I  should  know.    What  are  you?  speak. 
Come  not  too  near;  you  fall  on  iron  stakes  else. 
Spir.  What   voice   is   that?  my   young   Lord? 

speak  again. 
Sec.  Bro.  0  brother,  'tis  my  father's  Shepherd, 

sure. 
Eld.  Bro.  Thyrsis!    whose    artful  strains  have 

oft  delayed 

495  The  huddling  brook  to  hear  his  madrigal, 
And  sweetened  every  musk-rose  of  the  dale. 
How  earnest  thou  here,  good  swain?     Hath  any 
ram 


86  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Slipped  from  the  fold,  or  young  kid  lost  his  dam, 

Or  straggling  wether  the  pent  flock  forsook? 

How  couldst  thou  find  this  dark  sequestered  nook?  500 

Spir.  0  my  loved  master's  heir,  and  his  next  joy, 
I  came  not  here  on  such  a  trivial  toy 
As  a  strayed  ewe,  or  to  pursue  the  stealth 
Of  pilfering  wolf;  not  all  the  fleecy  wealth 
That  doth  enrich  these  downs  is  worth  a  thought     sos 
To  this  my  errand,  and  the  care  it  brought. 
But,  oh!  my  virgin  Lady,  where  is  she? 
How  chance  she  is  not  in  your  company? 

Eld.  Bro.  To  tell  thee  sadly,  Shepherd,  without 

blame 
Or  our  neglect,  we  lost  her  as  we  came.  5io 

Spir.  Ay  me  unhappy!  then  my  fe_ars_a^re  true. 
Eld.  Bro.    What    fears,    good    Thyrsis?     Prithee 

briefly  shew. 

Spir.  I'll  tell  ye.     'Tis  not  vain  or  fabulous 
(Though  so  esteemed  by  shallow  ignorance) 
What  the  sage  poets,  taught  by  the  heavenly  sis 

Muse, 

Storied  of  old  in  high  immortal  verse 
Of  dire  Chimeras  and  enchanted  isles, 
And  rifted  rocks  whose  entrance  leads  to  Hell; 
For  such  there  be,  but  unbelief  is  blind. 

Within  the  navel  of  this  hideous  wood,  520 

Immured  in  cypress  shades,  a  sorcerer  dwells. 
Of  Bacchus  and  of  Circe  born,  great  Comus, 
Deep  skilled  in  all  his  mother's  witcheries, 


COMUS  87 

And  here  to  every  thirsty  wanderer 
525  By  sly  enticement  gives  his  baneful  cup, 

With  many  murmurs  mixed,  whose  pleasing  poison 
The  visage  quite  transforms  of  him  that  drinks, 
And  the  inglorious  likeness  of  a  beast 
Fixes  instead,  un moulding  reason's  mintage 
530  Charactered  in  the  face.     This  have  I  learnt 
Tending  my  flocks  hard  by  i'  the  hilly  crofts 
That  brow  this  bottom  glade;  whence  night  by 

(night 
He  and  his  monstrous  rout  arejieard  to  howl 
Like  stabled  wolves,  or  tigers  at  their  prey, 

535  Doing  abhorred  rites  to  Hecate 

In  their  obscured  haunts  of  inmost  bowers. 
Yet  have  they  many  baits  and_guileful  spells 
To  inveigle  and  invite  the  unwary  sense 
Of  them  that  pass  unweeting  by  the  way. 

MoThi&eveninjy  late,  by  then  the  chewing  flocks 
Had  ta'en  their  supper  on  the  savoury  herb 
Of  knot-grass  dew-besprent,  and  were  in  fold, 
I  sate  me  down  to  watch  upon  a  bank 
With  ivy  canopied,  and  interwove 

545  With  flaunting  honeysuckle,  and  began, 
Wrapt  in  a  pleasing  fit  of  melancholy, 

I      To  meditate  my  rural  minstrelsy, 
Till  fancy  had  her  fill.    But  ere  a  close 
The  wonted  roar  was  up  amidst  the  woods, 
560  And  filled  the  air  with  barbarous  dissonance; 
At  which  I  ceased,  and  listened  them  a  while. 


88  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Till  an  unusual  stop  of  suddenjdlence 

Gave  respite  to  the  drowsy-flighted  steeds 

That  draw  the  litter  of  close-curtained  Sleep. 

At  last  a  soft  and  solemn-breathing  sound  555 

Rose  like  a  steam  of  rich  distilled  perfumes, 

And  stole  upon  the  air,  that  even  Silence 

Was  took  ere  she  was  ware,  and  wished  she  might 

Deny  her  nature,  and  be  never  more, 

Still  to  be  so  displaced.     I  was  all  ear,  seo 

And  took  in  strains  that  might  create  a  soul 

Under  the  ribs  of  Death.     But,  oh!  ere  long 

Too  well  I  did  perceive  it  was  thejvoice 

Of  my  most  honoured  Lady,  your  dear  sister. 

Amazed  I  stood,  harrowed  with  grief  and  fear;         565 

And  "0  poor  hapless  nightingale,"  thought  I, 

"How  sweet  thou  sing'st,  how  near  the  deadly 

snare!" 

Then  down  the  lawns  I  ran  with  headlong  haste, 
Through  paths  and  turnings  often  trod  by  day, 
Till,  guided  by  mine  ear,  I  found  the  place  570 

Where  that  damned  wizard,  hid  in  sly  disguise 
(For  so  by  certain  signs  I  knew),  had  met 
Already,  ere  my  best  speed  could  prevent, 
The  aidless  innocent  Lady,  his  wished  prey; 
Who  gently  asked  if  he  had  seen  such  two,  575 

Supposing  him  some  neighbour  villager. 
Longer  I  durst  not  stay,  but  soon  I  guessed 
Ye  were  the  two  she  meant;  with  that  I  sprung 
Into  swiftjlight,  till  I  had  found  you  here; 


COMUS  89 

680  But  further  know  I  not. 

Sec.  Bro.  0  night  and  shades, 

How  are  ye  joined  with  helljn  triple  knot, 
Against  the  unarmed  weakness  of  one  virgin, 
Alone  and  helpless!    Is  this  the  confidence 
You  gave  me,  brother? 

Eld.  Bro.  Yes,  and  keep  it  still; 

685  Lean  on  it  safely;  not  a  period 

i    Shall  be  unsaid  for  me.    Against  the  threats 
Of  malice^oro£sorcery,  or  that  power  ./ 
Which  erring  men  call  Chance,  this  I  hold  firm: 
Virtue  mayjb^assailed,  but  neveriurt, 

690  Surprised  by  unjust  force,  but  not  enthralled; 
Yea,  even  that  which  Mischief  meant  most  harm 
Shall  in  the  happy  trial  prove  most  glory. 
But  evil  jm  itself  shall  back  recoil, 
And  mix  no  more  with  goodness,  when  at  last, 

595  Gathered  like  scum,  and  settled  to  itself, 
It  shall  be  in  eternal  restless  change 
Self-fed  and  selfH£onsumed.     If  this  fail, 
The  pillared  firmament  is  rottenness, 
And  earth's  base  built  on  stubble.    But  come, 
let's  on! 

coo  Against  the  opposing  will  and  arm  of  heaven 
May  never  this  just  sword  be  lifted  up; 
But  for  that  damned  magician,  let  him  be  girt 
With  all  the  grisly  legions  that  troop 
Under  the  sooty  flag  of  Acheron^          ^X^ 

cos  Harpies  and  Hydras,  or  all  the  monstrous  forms 


90  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

'Twixt  Africa  and  Ind,  I'll  find  him  out, 
And  force  him  to  return  his  purchase  back, 
Or  drag  him  by  the  curls  to  a  foul  death, 
Cursed  as  his  life. 

Spir.  Alas!  good  venturous  youth, 

I  love  thy  courage  yet,  and  bold  emprise;  311 

But  here  thy  sword  can  do  thee  little  stead. 
Far  other  arms  and  other  weapons  must 
Be  those  that  quell  the  might  of  hellish  charms. 
He  with  his  bare  wand  can  unthread  thy  joints, 
And  crumble  all  thy  sinews. 

Eld.  Bro.  Why,  prithee,  Shepherd,  611 

How  durst  thou  then  thyself  approach  so  near 
As  to  make  this  relation? 

Spir.  Care  and  utmost  shifts 

How  to  secure  the  Lady  from  surprisal 
Brought  to  my  mind  a  certain  shepherd  lad, 
Of  small  regard  to  see  to,  yet  well_skilled  62 

In  every  virtuous  plant  and  healing  herb 
That  spreads  her  verdant  leaf  to  the  morning  ray. 
He  loved  me  well,  and  oft  would  beg  mejiing; 
Which,  when  I  did,  he  on  the  tender  grass 
Would  sit,  and  hearken  even  to  ecstasy, 
And  in  requital  <¥>$  Ws  leathern  scrip, 
And  shew  me  simpfes  01  a  thousand  names, 
Telling  their  strange  and  vigorous  faculties. 
Amongst  the  rest  a  small  unsightly  root, 
But  of  divine  effect,  he  culled  me  out: 
The  leaf  was  darkish,  and  had  prickles  on  it, 


COMUS  91 

But  in  another  country,  as  he  said, 
Bore  a  bright  golden  flower,  but  not  in  this  soil: 
Unknown,  and  like  esteemed,  and  the  dull  swain 
35 Treads  on  it  daily  with  his  clouted  shoon; 
And  yet  more  med'cinal  is  it  than  that  Moly 
That  Hermes  once  to  wise  Ulysses  gave. 
He  called  it  Hsemony,  and  gavej^me^ 
And  bade  me  keep  it  as  of  sovra&use 

iiof'Gainst  all  enchantments,  mildew  blast,  or  /damp, 

v^  •*    ^ __^ * . . 

Or  ghastly  Furies'  apparition.    ^-*  *" 
I  pursed  it  up,  but  little  reckoning  made, 
Till  now  that  this  extremity  compelled. 
But  now  I  find  it  true;  for  by  this  means 

145 1  knew  the  foul  enchanter,  though  disguised, 
Entered  the  very  lime-twigs  of  his  spells, 
And  yet  came  off.     If  you  have  this  about  you 
(As  I  will  give  you  when  we  go),  you  may 
Boldly  assault  the  necromancer's  hall; 

iso  Where  if  he  be,  with  dauntless  hardihood, 
And  brandished  blade  rush  on  him:  break  his  glass, 
And  shed  the  luscious  liquor  on  the  ground; 
But  seize  his  wando     Though  he  and  his  curst 

crew 
Fierce  sign  of  battle  make,  and  menace  high, 

m  Or,  like  the  sons  of  Vulcan,  vomit  smoke, 
Yet  will  they  soon  retire,  if  he  but  shrink. 

Eld.Bro.    Thyrsis,  lead  on  apace;  I'll  follow 

thee; 
And  some  good  angel  bear  a  shield  before  us! 


92  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

The  Scene  changes  to  a  stately  palace,  set  out  with  all 
manner  of  deliciousness:  soft  music,  tables  spread 
with  all  dainties.  COMUS  appears  with  his  rabble, 
and  THE  LADY  set  in  an  enchanted  chair:  to  whom 
he  offers  his  glass;  which  she  puts  by,  and  goes 
about  to  rise 

Comus.  Nay,  Lady,  sit;  if  I  but  wave  this  wand, 
Your  nerves  are  all  chained  up  in  alabaster,  e 

And  you  a  statue;  or  as  Daphne  was, 
Root-bound,  that  fled  Apollo. 

Lady.  Fool,  do  not  boast; 

Thou  canst  not  touch  the  freedom  of  my  mind 
With  all  thy  charms,  although  this  corporal  rind 
Thou  hast  immanacled  while  Heaven  sees  good. 

Comus.  Why  are  you  vexed,  Lady?  why  do  you 

frown? 

Here  dwell  no  frowns,  nor  anger;  from  these  gates 
Sorrow  flies  far.     See,  here  be  all  the  pleasures 
That  fancy  can  beget  on  youthful  thoughts, 
When  the  fresh  blood  grows  lively,  and  returns 
Brisk  as  the  April  buds  in  primrose  season. 
And  first  behold  this  cordial  julep  here, 
That  flames  and  dances  in  his  crystal  bounds, 
With  spirits  of  balm  and  fragrant  syrups  mixed. 
Not  that  Nepenthes,  which  the  wife  of  Thone 
In  Egypt  gave  to  Jove-born  Helena 
Is  of  such  power  to  stir  up  joy  as  this, 
To  life  so  friendly,  or  so  cool  to  thirst. 


ICOMUS  93 

Why  should  you  be  so  cruel  to  yourself, 

680  And  to  those  dainty  limbs,  which  Nature  lent 
For  gentle  usage  and  soft  delicacy? 
But  you  invert  the  covenants  of  her  trust, 
And  harshly  deal,  like  an  ill  borrower, 
With  that  which  you  received  on  other  terms, 

ess  Scorning  the  unexempt  condition 

By  which  all  mortal  frailty  must  subsist, 
Refreshment  after  toil,  easejifter  pain, 
That  have  been  tired  all  day  without  repast, 
And  timely  rest  have  wanted.    But,  fair  virgin, 

690  This  will  restore  all  soon. 

Lady.  'Twill  not,  false  traitors 

Twill  not  restore  the  truth  and  honesty 
That  thou  hast  banished  from  thy  tongue  with  lies, 
Was  this  the  cottage  and  the  safe  abode 
Thou  told'st  me  of?    What  grim  aspects  are  these, 

695  These  ugly-headed  monsters?    Mercy  guard  me! 
Hence  with  thy  brewed  enchantments,  foul  de- 
ceiver! 

Hast  thou  betrayed  my  credulous  innocence 
With  vizored  falsehood  and  base  forgery? 
And  would  'st  thou  seek  again  to  trap  me  here 

«x>  With  liquorish  baits,  fit  to  ensnare  a  brute? 
Were  it  a  draughtjor_Juno  when  she  banquets, 
I  would  not  taste  thy  treason  rms  offer.     None 
But  such  as  are  good  men  can,  give  good  things; 
And  that  which  is  not  goocHs  not  delicious 

705  To  a  well-governed  and  wise  appetite. 


94  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Comus.  0  foolishness  of  men!  that  lend  their 

ears 

To  those  budge  doctors  of  the  Stoic  fur, 
And  fetch  their  precepts  from  the  Cynic  tub, 
Praising  the  lean  and  sallow  Abstinence! 
Wherefore  did  Na-ture  pour  her  bounties  forth        TK 
With  such  a  full  and  un withdrawing  hand, 
Covering  the  earth  with  odours,  fruits,  and  flocks, 
Thronging  the  seas  with  spawn  innumerable, 
But  all  to  please  and  sate  the  curious  taste? 
And  set  to  work  millions  of  spinning  worms,         711 
That  in  their  green  shops  weave  the  smooth-haired 

silk, 

To  deck  her  sons;  and,  that  no  corner  might 
Be  vacant  of  her  plenty,  in  her  own  loins 
She  hutched  the  all-worshiped  ore  and  precious 

gems, 

To  store  her  children  with.    If  all  the  world          72 
Should,  in  a  pet  of  temperance,  feed  on  pulse, 
Drink  the  clear  stream,  and  nothing  wear  but 

frieze, 
The  All-giver  would  be  unthanked,  would  be  un- 

jpraised, 

Not  half  his  riches  known,  and  yet  despised; 
And  we  should  serve  him  as  a  grudging  master,     72 
As  a  penurious  niggard  of  his  wealth, 
And  live  like  Nature's  bastards,  not  her  sons, 
Who  would  be  quite  surcharged  with  her  own 

weight, 


COMUS  95 

And  strangled  with  her  waste  fertility: 
rao  The  earth  cumbered,  and  the  winged  air  darked 
with  plumes, 

The  herds  would  over-multitude  their  lords; 

The  sea  o'erfraught  would  swell,  and  the  unsought 
diamonds 

Would  so  emblaze  the  forehead  of  the  deep, 

And  so  bestud  with  stars,  that  they  below 
res  Would  grow  inured  to  light,  and  come  at  last 

To  gaze  upon  the  sun  with  shameless  brows. 

List,  Lady;  be  not  coy,  and  be  not  cozened 

With  that  same  vaunted  name,  Virginity. 

Beauty  is  Nature's  coin)  must  not  be  hoarded^ 
r4o  But  must  be  currerr^  and  the  good  thereof 

Consists  in  mutual  and  partaken  bliss, 

Unsavoury  in  the  enjoyment  of  itself. 

If  you  let  slip  time,  like  a  neglected  rose 

It  withers  on  the  stalk  with  languished  head. 
r45 Beauty  is  Nature's  brag,\and  must  be  shown 
Qn  courts,  at  feasts,  and  high  solemnities, 
^Vliere  most  may  wonder  at  the  workmanship. 

It  is  for  homely  features  to  keep  home; 

They  had  their  name  thence:  coarse  complexions 
750  And  cheeks  of  sorry  grain  will  serve  to  ply 

The  sampler,  and  to  tease  the  huswife's  wool. 

What  need  ai^ermeil-tinctured  lip  for  that, 

Love-darting  eyes,  or  tresses  like  the  morn? 

There  was  another  meaning  in  these  gifts; 
755  Think  what,  and  be  advised;  you  are  but  young  yet 


96  MILTON'S  MiNOR  POEMS 

Lady.  I  had  not  thought  to  have  unlocked  my 

lips 

In  this  unhallowed  air,  but  that  this  juggler' 
Would  think  to  charm  my  judgment,  as  mine  eyes, 
Obtruding  false  rules  pranked  in  reason's  garb. 

/ 1  hate  when  vice  can  bolt  her  arguments,  w. 

*  And  virtue  has  no  tongue  to  check  her  pride. 
Impostor!  do  not  charge  most  innocent  Nature, 
As  if  she  would  her  children  should  be  riotous 
With  her  abundance.     She,  good  cateress, 
Means  her  provision  only  to  the  good,  765 

That  live  according  to  her  seber  laws, 
And  holy  dictate  of  spare  Temperance. 
If  every  justjman  that  now  pines  with  want 
Had  but  a  moderate  and  beseeming  share 
Of  that  which  lewdly-pampered  Luxury  77< 

Now  heaps  upon  some  few  with  vast  excess, 
Nature^  full  blessings  would  be  well  dispensed 
In  unsuperfluous  even  proportion, 
And  she  no  whit  encumbered  with  her  store; 
And  then  the  Giver  would  be  better  thanked,          775 
His  praise  due  paid:  for  swinish  gluttony 
Ne'er  looks  to  Heaven  amidst  his  gorgeous  feast, 
But  with  besotted  base  ingratitude 
Crams,  and  blasphemes  his  Feeder.     Shall  I  go  on? 
Or  have  I  said  enough?    To  him  that  dares  730 

Arm  his  profane  tongue  with  contemptuous  words 
Against  the  sun-clad  power  of  chastity 
Fain  would  I  something  say; — yet  to  what  end? 


COMUS  97 

Thou  hast  not  ear,  nor  soul,  to  apprehend 
185  The  sublime  notion  and  high  mystery 

That  must  be  uttered  to  unfold  the  sage 

And  serious  doctrine  of  Virginity; 

And  thou  art  worthy  that  thou  shouldst  not  know 

More  happiness  than  this  thy  present  lot. 
790  Enjoy  your  dear  wit,  and  gay  rhetoric, 

That  hath  so  well  been  taught  her  dazzling  fence; 

Thou  art  not  fit  to  hear  thyself  convinced. 

Yet,  should  I  try,  the  uncontrolled  worth 

Of  this  pure  cause  would  kindle  my  rapt  spirits 
795  To  such  a  flame  of  sacred  vehemence, 

That  dumb  things  would  be  .moved  to  sympathize, 

And  the  brute  earth  would  lend  her  nerves,  and 
shake, 

Till  all  thy  magic  structures,  reared  so  high, 

Were  shattered  into  heaps  o'er  thy  false  head. 
soo     Comus.  She  fables  not.    I  feel  that  I  do  fear 

Her  words  set  off  by  some  superior  power; 

And,  though  not  mortal,  yet  a  cold  shuddering  dew 

Dips  me  all  o'er,  as  when  the  wrath  of  Jove 

Speaks  thunder  and  the  chains  of  Erebus 
s805  To  some  of  Saturn's  crew.    I  must  dissemble, 

And  try  her  yet  more  strongly. — Come,  no  more! 

This  is  mere  moral  babble,  and  direct 

Against  the  canon  laws  of  our  foundation; 

I  must  not  suffer  this,  yet  'tis  but  the  lees 
Jio  And  settlings  of  a  melancholy  blood. 

But  this  will  cure  all  straight;  one  sip  of  this 


98  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Will  bathe  the  drooping  spirits  in  delight, 
Beyond  the  bliss  of  dreams.    Be  wise,  and  taste. 

The  BROTHERS  rush  in  with  swords  drawn,  wrest  his 
glass  out  of  his  hand,  and  break  it  against  the 
ground:  his  rout  make  sign  of  resistance,  but  are 
all  driven  in.  The  ATTENDANT  SPIRIT  comes  in 

Spir.  What!  have  you  let  the  false  enchanter 

scape? 

O  ye  mistook;  ye  should  have  snatched  his  wand,  sis 
And  bound  him  fast.    Without  his  rod  reversed, 
And  backward  mutters  of  dissevering  power, 
We  cannot  free  the  Lady  that  sits  here 
In  stony  fetters  fixed  and  motionless. 
Yet  stay,  be  not  disturbed;  now  I  bethink  me,         820 
Some  other  means  I  have  which  may  be  used, 
Which  once  of  Meliboeus  old  I  learnt, 
The  soothest  shepherd  that  e'er  piped  on  plains. 

There  is  a  gentle  Nymph  not  far  from  hence, 
That  with  moist  curb  sways  the  smooth  Severn  825 

stream: 

Sabrina  is  her  name:  a  virgin  pure; 
Whilom  she  was  the  daughter  of  Locrine, 
That  had  the  sceptre  from  his  father  Brute. 
She,  guiltless  damsel,  flying  the  mad  pursuit 
Of  her  enraged  stepdame,  Guendolen,  gsc 

Commended  her  fair  innocence  to  the  flood 
That  stayed   her   flight   with   his   cross-flowing 
course. 


COMUS  99 

The  water  nymphs,  that  in  the  bottom  played, 
Held  up  their  pearled  wrists,  and  took  her  in, 

835  Bearing  her  straight  to  aged  Nereus'  hall; 
Who,  piteous  of  her  woes,  reared  her  lank  head, 
And  gave  her  to  his  daughters  to  imbathe 
In  nectared  lavers  strewed  with  asphodil, 
And  through  the  porch  and  inlet  of  each  sense 

840  Dropt  in  ambrosial  oils,  till  she  revived, 
And  underwent  a  quick  immortal  change, 
Made  Goddess  of  the  river.     Still  she  retains 
Her  maiden  gentleness,  and  oft  at  eve 
Visits  the  herds  along  the  twilight  meadows, 

845  Helping  all  urchin  blasts,  and  ill-luck  signs 
That  the  shrewd  meddling  elf  delights  to  make, 
Which  she  with  precious  vialed  liquors  heals: 
For  which  the  shepherds,  at  their  festivals,  I 
/  Carol  her  goodness  loud  in  rustic  lays, 

SEC  And  throw  sweet  garland  wreaths  into  her  stream 
^Of  pansies,  pinks,  and  gaudy  daffodils. 
And,  as  the  old  swain  said,  she  can  unlock 
The  clasping  charm,  and  thaw  the  numbing  spell, 
If  she  be  right  invoked  in  warbled  song; 

&5  For  maidenhood  she  loves,  and  will  be  swift 
To  aid  a  virgin,  such  as  was  her  self, 
In  hard-besetting  need.     This  will  I  try, 
And  add  the  power  of  some  adjuring  verse. 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 


100  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Song 
Sabrina  fair, 

Listen  where  thou  art  sitting 
Under  the  glassy,  cool,  translucent  wave, 

In  twisted  braids  of  lilies  knitting 
The  loose  train  of  thy  amber-dropping  hair; 
Listen  for  dear  honour's  sakeT" 
Goddess  of  the  silver  lake, 
Listen  and  save. 

Listen,  and  appear  to  us, 
In  name  of  great  Oceanus. 
By  the  earth-shaking  Neptune's  mace, 
And  Tethys'  grave  majestic  pace; 
By  hoary  Nereus'  wrinkled  look, 
And  the  Carpathian  wizard's  hook; 
By  scaly  Triton's  winding  shell, 
And  old  soothsaying  Glaucus'  spell; 
By  Leucothea's  lovely  hands, 
And  her  son  that  rules  the  strands; 
By  Thetis'  tinsel-slippered  feet, 
And  the  songs  of  Sirens  sweet; 
By  dead  Parthenope's  dear  tomb, 
And  fair  Ligea's  golden  comb, 
Wherewith  she  sits  on  diamond  rocks 
Sleeking  her  soft  alluring  locks; 
By  all  the  Nymphs  that  nightly  dance 
Upon  thy  streams  with  wily  glance; 
Rise,  rise,  and  heave  thy  rosy  head 
From  thy  coral-paven  bed, 


COMTTS  101 

And  bridle  in  thy  headlong  wave, 
,    Till  thou  our  summons  answered  have. 
Listen  and  save! 

SABRINA  rises,  attended  by  Water-nymphs,  and  sings 

)         By  the  rushy-fringed  bank, 

Where  grows  the  willow  and  the  osier  dank, 

My  sliding  chariot  stays, 
Thick  set  with  agate,  and  the  azurn  sheen 
pf  turkis  blue,  and  emerald  green,  j 
>          '   That  in  the  channel  strays; 
Whilst  from  off  the  waters  fleet 
Thus  I  set  my  printlessjfeet 
O'er  the  cowslip's  velvet  head, 

That  bends  not  as  I  tread. 
3         Gentle  swain,  at  thy  request 

I  am  here. 
Spir.      Goddess  dear, 

We  implore  thy  powerful  hand 
To  undo  the  charmed  band 
3         Of  true  virgin  here  distressed 

Through  the  force  and  through  the  wile 
Of  unblessed  enchanter  vile. 

Sabr,     Shepherd,  'tis  my  office  best 
To  help  ensnared  chastity. 
9         Brightest  Lady,  look  on  me. 
Thus  I  sprinkle  on  thy  breast 
Drops  that  from  my  fountain  pure 
I  have  kept  of  precious  cure; 


102  'MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Thrice  upon  thy  finger's  tip, 

Thrice  upon  thy  rubied  lip:  915 

Next  this  marble  venomed  seat, 

Smeared  with  gums  of  glutinous  heat,     , 

I  touch  with  chaste  palms  moist  and  cold. 

Now  the  spell  hath  lost  his  hold; 

And  I  must  haste  ere  morning  hour  920 

To  wait  in  Amphitrite's  bower. 

SABRINA  descends,  and  THE  LADY  rises  out  of  her 
seat 

Spir.    Virgin,  daughter  of  Locrine, 
Sprung  of  old  Anchises'  line, 
May  thy  brimmed  waves  for  this 
Their  full  tribute  never  miss  925 

/From  a  thousand  petty  rills, 
That  tumble  down  the  snowy  hills: 
Summer  drought  or  singed  air 
Never  scorch  thy  tresses  fair, 
Nor  wet  October's  torrent  flood  930 

Thy  molten  crystal  fill  with  mud; 
May  thy  billows  roll  ashore 
The  beryl  and  the  golden  ore; 
May  thy  lofty  head  be  crowned 
With  many  a  tower  and  terrace  round,  935 

And  here  and  there  thy  banks  upon 
With  groves  of  myrrh  and  cinnamon. 

Come,  Lady;  while  Heaven  lends  us  grace, 
Let  us  fly  this  cursed  place, 


COMUS  103 

940         Lest  the  sorcerer  us  entice 

With  some  other  new  device. 

Not  a  waste  or  needless  sound 

Till  we  come  to  holier  ground. 

I  shall  be  your  faithful  guide 
945         Through  this  gloomy  covert  wide; 

And  not  many  furlongs  thence 

Is  your  Father's  residence, 

Where  this  night  are  met  in  state 

Many  a  friend  to  gratulate 
950         His  wished  presence,  and  beside 

All  the  swains  that  there  abide 

With  jigs  and  rural  dance  resort. 

We  shall  catch  them  at  their  sport, 

And  our  sudden  coming  there 
f>5         Will  double  all  their  mirth  and  cheer. 

Come,  let  us  haste;  the  stars  grow  high, 

But  Night  sits  monarch  yet  in  the  mid  sky. 

The  Scene  changes,  presenting  Ludlow  Town,  and 
the  President's  Castle:  then  come  in  Country 
Dancers,  after  them  the  ATTENDANT  SPIRIT  with 
the  two  BROTHERS  and  THE  LADY 

Song 

Spir.    Back,  shepherds,  back!  enough  your 

play 

Till  next  sun-shine  holiday, 
eo         Here  be,  without  duck  or  nod, 


104  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Other  trippings  to  be  trod 

Of  lighter  toes,  and  such  court  guise 

As  Mercury  did  first  devise 

With  the  mincing  Dryades 

On  the  lawns  and  on  the  leas.  965 

This  second  Song  presents  them  to  their  Father  and 
Mother 

Noble  Lord  and  Lady  bright, 

I  have  brought  ye  new  delight. 

Here  behold  so  goodly  grown 

Three  fair  branches  of  your  own. 

Heaven  hath  timely  tried  their  youth,  970 

Their  faith,  their  patience,  and  their  truth, 

And  sent  them  here  through  hard  assays 

With  a  crown  of  deathless  praise, 

To  triumph  in  victorious  dance 

O'er  sensual  folly  and  intemperance.  975 

The  dances  ended,  the  SPIRIT  epiloguizes 

Spir.  To  the  ocean  now  I  fly, 
And  those  happy  climes  that  lie 
Where  day  never  shuts  his  eye, 
Up  in  the  broad  fields  of  the  sky. 
There  I  suck  the  liquid  air,  980 

All  amidst  the  gardens  fair 
Of  Hesperus,  and  his  daughters  three 
That  sing  about  the  golden  tree. 


COMUS  105 

Along  the  crisped  shades  and  bowers 
585         Revels  the  spruce  and  jocund  Spring; 

The  Graces,  and  the  rosy-bosomed  Hours 

Thither  all  their  bounties  bring; 

There  eternal  Summer  dwells, 

And  west-winds,  with  musky  wing 
wo         About  the  cedarn  alleys  fling 

Nard  and  cassia's  balmy  smells. 
\  Iris  there  with  humid  bow 

Waters  the  odorous  banks,  that  blow 

Flowers  of  more  mingled  hue 
995         Than  her  purfled  scarf  can  shew, 

And  drenches  with  Elysian  dew 

(List,_mortals,  if  your  ears  be  true) 
<TBeds  of  hyacinth  and  roses, 

Where  young  Adonis  oft  reposes, 
ooo         Waxing  well  of  his  deep  wound, 

In  slumber  soft,  and  on  the  ground 

Sadly  sits  the  Assyrian  queen. 

But  far  above,  in  spangled  sheen, 

Celestial  Cupid^her  famed  son,  advanced 
KJS         Holds  his  dear  Psyche,  sweet  entranced 

After  her  wandering  labours  long, 

Till  free  consent  the  gods  among 

Make  her  his  eternal  bride, 

And  from  her  fair  unspotted  side 
10         Two  blissful  twins  are  to  be  born, 

Youth  and  Joy;  so  Jove  hath  sworn. 
But  now  my  task  is  smoothly  done: 


106  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

I  can  fly,  or  I  can  run, 
Quickly  to  the  green  earth's  end, 
Where  the  bowed  welkin  slow  doth  bend,         101 
And  from  thence  can  soar  as  soon 
To  the  corners  of  the  moon. 
Mortals,  that  would  follow  me, 
Love  Virtue;  she  alone  is  free. 
She  can  teach  ye  how  to  climb  ia 

Higher  than  the  sphery  chime; 
f       Or,  if  Virtue  feeble  were, 

Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her. 


LYCIDAS 

In  this  Monody  the  Author  bewails  a  learned  Friend, 
unfortunately  drowned  in  his  passage  from  Chester  on 
the  Irish  Seas,  1637;  and,  by  occasion,  foretells  the  ruin 
of  our  corrupted  Clergy,  then  in  their  height. 

/    i>    V  V  L//  *S    /  ^      / 

YET oncemore,  Oyela>nrek,  and  oncepiore,  <=- 

Ye  myrtles  b^^n;  with  iv^myer  Jgre;^*-      2^+' 
I^dm^jo  pluck  Vour  berries  harsh  land  crude,  c 

And  with  fOTcea  fingers  rude     *~  / 
•   t£m*-ib-  •*•'    ' 

5 Shatter  your  leaves -before  the  mellowing  year.*- 

Bitter  constraint  and  sad  occasion  dear, 
Compels  me  to  disturb  your  season  due; 
For  Lycidas  is  dead,  dead  ere  his  prime, 
Young  Lycidas,  and  hath  not  left  his  peer 

10  Who  would  not  sing  for  Lycidas?     He  Knew 
Himself  to  sing,  and  build  the  lofty  rhyme. 
He  rnupt  not  float  upon  his  watery  bier  v 
Unwept,  and  welter  to  the  parching  wind, 
\yithout  thS  meed  of  some  melodious  tear^ 

is     Begin,  then,  Sisters  of  the  sacred  well 
That  from  beneath  the  seat  of  Jove  dotty  spring; 
Begin,  and  somewhat  loudly  sweep  the  string. 
Hence  with  denial  vain  and  coy  excuse: 
So  may  ^pme  gentle/Muse  k*w  • 

UP ^cf^rutT  iCfcJL  » '•>         /        /         ' '          >^* 

go  With  mcky  worasr^vour  my  destined  Urn, 
And  as  he  passes  turn(  ^/ 

107 


108  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 


And  bid  fair  peace  be  to  my  sable  shroud! 

For  we  were  nursed  upon  the  self-same  hill, 
Fed  the  same  flock,  by  fountain,  shade,  and  rill; 

;  Together  both,  ere  the  high  lawns  appeared        .     25 
Under  the  opening  eyelids  of  the  Morn,. 
We  drove  a-field,  and  both  together  heard 
Wha;t  time  the  grey-fly  winds  her  sultry  horn, 
Battening  our  flocks  with  the  fresh  dews  of  night, 
Oft  till  the  star  that  rose  at  evening  bright  so 

Toward  heaven's  descent  had  sloped  his  westering 

wheel. 
Meanwhile  the  rural  ditties  were  not  mute; 

~~  Tempered  to  the  oaten  flute, 
Rough  Satyrs  danced,  and  Fauns  with  cloven  heel 
From  the  glad  sound  would  not  be  absent  long;     35 
And  old  Damcetas  loved  to  hear  our  song. 
/But,  oh!  the  heavy  change,  now  thou  art  gone, 
Now  thou  art  gone,  and  never  must  return! 
Thee,  Shepherd,  thee  the  woods  and  desert  caves,   • 
With  wild  thyme  and  the  gadding  vine  o'ergrown,  40 
And  all  their  echoes,  mourn. 

\The  willows,  and  the  hazel  copses  green,  J 
Shall  now  no  more  be  seen 
Fanning  their  joyous  leaves  to  thy  soft  lays./ 
As  killing  as  the  canker  to  the  rose,  45 

Or  taint-worm  to  the  weanling  herds  that  graze, 
Or  frost  to  flowers,  that  their  gay  wardrobe  wear, 
When  first  the  white-thorn  blows; 
Such,  Lycidas,  thy  loss  to  shepherd's  ear. 


LYCIDAS  109 


60     Whereja^erfi-^e,  Nymphs,  when  the  remorseless 

deep 

Closed  o'er  the  head  of  your  loved  Lycidas? 
For  neither  were  ye  playing  on  the  steep 
Where  your  old  bards,  the  famous  Druids,  lie, 
Nor  on  the  shaggy  top  of  Mona  high, 

55  Nor  yet  where  Deva  spreads  her  wizard  stream. 
Ay  me!  I  fondly  dream 
"Had  ye  been  there,".  ..  .for  what  could  that 

have  done? 

What  could  the  Muse  herself  that  Orpheus  bore, 
The  Muse  herself,  for  her  enchanting  son, 

eo  Whom  universal  nature  did  lament, 
When,  by  the  rout  that  made  the  hideous  roar, 
His  gory  visage  down  the  stream  was 
Down  the  swift  Hebrus  to  the  Lesbian  shore? 
7Alas!  what  boots  it  with  uncessant  care 

85  To  tend  the  homely,  slighted  shepherd's  trade, 
And  strictly  meditate  the  thankless  Muse? 
Were  it  not  better  done,  as  others  use, 
To  sport  with  Amaryllis  in  the  shade, 
Or  with  the  tangles  of  Nesera'a  hair? 

to  Fame  is  the  spur  that  4,he  clear  spirit  doth  raise 
(That  last  infirmity  of  noble  mind) 
To  scorn  delights,  and  live  laborious  days; 
But,  the  fair  guerdon  when  we  hope  to  find, 
And  think  to  burst  out  into  sudden  blaze, 

TO  Comes  the  blind  Fury  with  the  abhorred  shears, 
And  slits  the  thin-spun  life.     "  But  not  the  praise," 


Ill*  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Phoebus  replied,  and  touched  my  trembling  ears: 
"  Fame  is  no  plant  that  grows  on  mortal  soil, 
Nor  in  the  glistering  foil 

Set  off  to  the  world,  nor  in  broad  rumour  lies,         so 
But  lives  and  spreads  aloft  by  those  pure  eyes 
And  perfect  witness  of  all- judging  Jove; 
As  he  pronounces  lastly  on  each  deed^^-^*-*^ 
^Oi  so  much  fame  in_heaven  expect  thy  meed.'N 

0  fountain  Arethuse,  and  thou  honoured  flood,     85 
Smooth-sliding  Mincius,  crowned  with  vocal  reeds. 
That  strain  I  heard  was  of  a  higher  mood. 
'  But  now  my  oat  proceeds, 
And  listens  to  the  Herald^of  the  Sea 
That  came  in  Neptune's  plea.  90 

He  asked  the  waves,  and  asked  the  felon  winds, 
What  hard  mishap  hath  doomed  this  gentle  swain^? 
And  questioned  every  gust  of  rugged  wings 
That  blows  from  off  each  beaked  promontory , 
They  knew  not  of  his  story;  95 

And  sage  Hippotades  their  answer  brings, 
That  not  a  blast  was  from  his  dungeon  strayed: 
The  air  was  calm,  and  on  the  level  brine 
Sleek  Panope  with  all  her  sisters  played. 
It  was  that  fatal  and  perfidious  bark,  j« 

Built  in  the  eclipse,  and  rigged  with  curses  dark, 
That  sunk  so  low  that  sacred  head  of  thine. 

Next,  Camus,  reverend  sire,  went  footing  slow, 
His  mantle  hairy,  and  his  bonnet  sedge, 
Inwrought  with  figures  dim,  and  on  the  edge          *« 


LYCIDAS  111 

Like  to  that  sanguine  flower  inscribed  with  woe. 

;i<AhI  who  hath  reft,"  quoth  he,  "my  dearest 
pledge?" 

Last  came,  and  last  did  go,     ^ 

The  Pilot  of  the  Galilean  Lake; 
no  Two  massy  keys  he  bore  of  metals  twain 

(The  golden  opes,  the  iron  shuts  amain). 

He  shook  his  mitred  lock,  and  stern  bespake: — 

"How  well  could  I  have  spared  for  thee,  young 
swain, 

Enow  of  such  as,  for  their  bellies'  sake, 
115  Creep,  and  intrude,  and  climb  into  the  fold! 

Of  other  care  they  little  reckoning  make, 

Than  how  to  scramble  at  the  shearers'  feast, 

And  shove  away  the  worthy  bidden  guest. 

Blind  mouths!  that  scarce  themselves  know  how 

to  hold 
120  A  sheep-hook,  or  have  learnt  aught  else  the  least 

That  to  the  faithful  herdman's  art  belongs! 

What  recks  it  them?    What  need  they?    They  are 
sped; 

And,  when  they  list,  their  lean  and  flashy  songs 

Grate  on  their  scrannel  pipes  of  wretched  straw; 
125  The  hungry  sheep  look  up,  and  are  not  fed, 

But,  swoln  with  wind  and  the  rank  mist  they  draw, 

Rot  inwardly,  and  foul  contagion  spread; 

Besides  what  the  grim  wolf  with  privy  paw 

Daily  devours  apace,  and  nothing  said. 
;soBut  that  two-handed  engine  at  the  door 


112  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Stands  ready  to  smite  once,  and  smite  no  more." 

Return,  Alpheus,  the  dread  voice  is  past 
That  shrunk  thy  streams;  return,  Sicilian  Muse, 
And  call  the  vales,  and  bid  them  hither  cast 
Their  bells  and  flowerets  of  a  thousand  hues^\        sa 
Ye  valleys  low,  where  the  mild  whispers  use 
Of  shades,  and  wanton  winds  f\nd  gushing  brooks, 
On  whose  fresh  lap  the  swart  star  sparely  looks, 
Throw  hither  all  your  quaint  enamelled  eyes, 
That  on  the  green  turf  suck  the  honeyed  showers,  u 
And  purple  all  the  ground  with  vernal  flowers. 
Bring  the  rathe  primrose  that  forsaken  dies, 
The  tufted  crow-toe,  and  pale  jessamine, 
The  white  pink,  and  the  pansy  freaked  with  jet, 
The  glpwin^violet,     ^    /    ^  /        ^/     /          14 
The  musk-rose,  aria  the  well-attired  woodbine, 
(With  cowslips  wan  that  hang  the  pensive  head,  \ 
And  every  flower  that  sad  embroidery  wears; 
Bid  amaranthus  all  his  beauty  shed, 
And  daffadillies  fill  their  cups  with  tears,  15 

To  strew  the  laureate  hearse  where  Lycid  lies. 
For  so,  to  interpose  a  little  ease, 
Let  our  frail  thoughts  dally  with  false  surmise. 
Ay  me!    Whilst  thee  the  shores  and  sounding  seas 
Wash  far  away,  where'er  thy  bones  are  hurPd;         15 
Whether  beyond  the  stormy  Hebrides, 
Where  thou  perhaps  under  the  whelming  tide 
Visit 'st  the  bottom  of  the  monstrous  world; 
Or  whether  thou,  to  our  moist  vows  denied, 


LYCIDAS  113 


leo  Sleep's!  by  the  fable  of  Bellerus  old, 

Where  the  great  Vision  of  the  guarded  mount 
Looks  toward  Namancos  and  Bayona's  hold. 

^  Look  homeward,  Angel,  now,  and  melt  with  ruth: 

X  And,  0  ye  dolphins,  waft  the  hapless  youth. 
neB     Weep  no  more,  woeful  shepherds,  weep  no  more, 
For  Lycidas,  your  sorrow,  is  not  dead, 
Sunk  though  he  be  beneath  the  watery  floor. 
So  sinks  the  day-star  in  the  ocean  be(J, 
And  yet  anon  repairs  his  drooping  head, 

170  And  tricks  his  beams,  and  with  new  spangled  ore 
Flames  m^ the  forehead  of  the  morning  sky: 
So  Lycidas  sunk  low,  but  mounted  high, 
Through  the  dear  might  of  Him  that  walked  the 

waves, 
Where,  other  groves  and  other  streams  along, 

175  With  nectar  pure  his  jx>zy  locks  he  laves, 
And  hears  the  unexpressive  nuptial  song, 
In  the  blest  kingdoms  meek  of  joy  and  love. 
There  entertain  him  all  the  Saints  above, 
In  solemn  troops,  and  sweet  societies, 

iso  That  sing,  and  singing  in  their  glory  move, 
And  wipe  the  tears  for  ever  from  his  eyes. 
Now,  Lycidas,  the  shepherds  weep  no  more; 
Henceforth  thou  art  the  Genius  of  the  shore, 
In  thy  large  recompense,  and  shalt  be  good 

185  To  all  that  wander  in  that  perilous  flood. 


114  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

' 
Thus  sang  the  uncouth  swain  to  the  oaks  and 

rills/ 

While  thqf  still  mom;  went  out/with  saqjdals  grey; 
Hejbouchedjthe  tender  stops  of  various  quills, 
(  /xWith  eater  thought  warbling  his  Doric  lay. 

And  now  Jthe  sun  had  stretched  tout  all  tho  hills,     190 
And  now  was  dropt  into  the  western  bay. 
At  last  he  rose,  and  twitched  his  mantle  blue: 
To-morrow  to  fresh  woods,  and  pastures  new. 


NOTES 

ABBREVIATIONS 

A.  S.— Anglo  Saxon. 

B.— R.  C.  Browne,  Mttton's  Poetical  Works  (Clarendon  Press). 
Cf.  -Compare.  ^ 

Fr.— French. 
Lat.— Latin. 

M.— Masson,  Milton's  Poetical  Works  (Macmillan). 
O.  F.— Old  French. 

Skeat— Skeat's  Etymological  Dictionary. 

T. — W.  P.  Trent,  Milton' 8  V  Allegro,  II  Penseroso,etc.  (Longmans)/ 
V.— A.  W.  Verity,  editions  of  V Allegro,  II  Penseroso,  etc.  (Cam- 
bridge University  Press). 

I/ALLEGRO 

Title — I?  Allegro:  Italian,  the  cheerful  man. 

1. — Melancholy.  The  mythological  figures  in  these 
poems  are  sometimes  taken  from  the  classics,  sometimes, 
as  in  this  case,  created  and  given  a  parentage  by  Milton. 

2.—  Cerberus:  in  Greek  mythology,  the  three-headed 
dog  who  guarded  the  entrance  to  the  lower  world. 

3.— Stygian.  The  cave  of  Cerberus  looked  out  on  the 
Styx,  one  of  the  four  rivers  of  Hades. 

5. — uncouth:  literally,  "unknown,"  hence  "wild," 
"fearful." 

6. — brooding:  partly  literal,  in  keeping  with  the  figure 
suggested  also  by  wings;  partly  metaphorical,  in  keeping 
with  the  idea  of  watchfulness  in  jealous. 

7. — night-raven.  The  raven  is  not  a  night  bird,  yet 
Shakspere  also  uses  this  term.  The  croaking  of  a  raven 
was  regarded  as  ominous,  and  perhaps  the  compound 
was  formed,  without  reference  to  natural  history,  to 
intensify  the  idea  of  gloom. 
115 


116  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

10. — Cimmerian.  The  Cimmerians  were  a  mythical 
people  who,  according  to  Homer  (Odyssey  t  xi,  14)  dwelt  in 
perpetual  mist  and  darkness. 

12-16.— This  account  of  the  parentage  of  the  three 
Graces  (Euphrosyne,  Aglaia,  and  Thalia)  has  been  traced 
to  Servius,  a  fourth  century  commentator  on  Vergil. 

12. — Euphrosyne:  Mirth,  yclept:  called,  from  the  past 
participle  of  A.  S.  cleopian. 

17. — sager:  more  sagely,  or,  "some  wiser  poets." 

19. — Zephyr:  the  west  wind.    Aurora:  the  dawn. 

12-24. — Note  the  significance  of  the  two  parentages 
suggested  for  Mirth:  first,  Love  and  Wine;  second,  and 
to  Milton  preferable,  the  spring  breeze  and  the  early 
morning. 

22. — Cf.  Shakspere's  "Morning  roses  newly  wash'd 
with  dew"  (Taming  of  the  Shrew,  II,  i,  174). 

24.— buxom:  originally,  * 'pliant;"  later,  as  here, 
"gracious,"  "lively."  What  is  the  modern  sense? 
debonair:  O.  F.  de  ban  airet  of  a  good  mien  (Skeat); 
courteous,  pleasant. 

27. — Quips:  sharp  speeches,  cranks:  witty  turns  of 
expression,  wanton  wiles:  sportive  tricks. 

28. — becks:  nods,  signs,  bows.  (Contracted  -from 
beckon. ) 

29.— Hebe:  the  goddess  of  Youth,  who  carried  the  cups 
of  nectar  to  the  gods. 

36.— mountain-nymph.  Inhabitants  of  mountainous 
countries  are  proverbially  lovers  of  liberty. 

40. — unreprovdd:  unreprovable. 

45-48.  The  sense  of  this  passage  has  been  much  dis- 
puted. The  chief  interpretations  are  these: — (1)  That 
it  is  the  lark  that  comes.  But  it  has  been  pointed  out 
that  it  is  not  true  to  nature  to  make  a  lark  come  to  a 
window,  and  some  have  instanced  this  as  an  example 
of  Milton's  inaccuracy  in  natural  description.  The 


NOTES— L'ALLEGRO  117 

grammar  also  is  unsatisfactory  under  this  interpretation, 
to  being  unnecessary:  hear  the  lark  begin  .  .  .  to  come  .  . . 
and  bid.  Again,  if  the  lark  is  meant,  why  in  spite  of 
sorrow?  (2)  That  L* Allegro  is  already  out  walking,  and 
comes  to  the  cottage  window  and  bids  good-morrow 
from  the  outside.  To  come  would  then  be  coordinate 
with  to  live  (ver.  39)  and  to  hear  (ver.  41).  This  is  M.'s 
view.  (3)  That  L' Allegro,  hearing  the  song  of  the  lark, 
rises  and  comes  to  the  window  to  bid  good-morrow  to 
whatever  may  be  outside  as  he  looks  out  through  the 
vines.  The  grammatical  construction  according  to  this 
view  is  the  same  as  in  (2),  and  this  has  the  advantage  of 
making  the  succeeding  barnyard  scene  a  natural  sequence. 
The  following  couplet  from  Sylvester's  translation  of 
Du  Bartas  (p.  70)  a  book  well-known  to  Milton,  is  worth 
noting  in  this  connection: 

The  cheerful  birds,  chippfng  him  sweet  good  morrow, 

With  Nature's  music  do  beguile  his  sorrow. 

The  passage  is  noted  by  C.  Dunster  in  Considerations  on 
Milton's  Early  Reading,  etc.,  Lond.,  1800,  p.  62. 

48. — eglantine.  Milton  is  not  exact  here.  Eglantine 
is  really  the  same  as  sweet-briar,  and  is  not  twisting.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  he  means  honeysuckle. 

50. — The  figure  seems  to  be  that  of  the  rear  of  a 
retreating  army  scattering  before  the  trumpet  blast  of 
the  enemy,  and  to  be  mock-heroic  in  its  application  to 
the  strutting  fowl. 

57. — not  unseen.  '  'Happy  men  love  witnesses  of  their 
joy"  (Kurd,  quoted  by  M.). 

60.— state:  stately  progress  (Keightley). 

62. — liveries:  used  not  merely  in  the  sense  of  '  'dress, " 
but  of  the  dress  delivered  by  a  lord  to  his  retinue,  and  so 
suggesting  the  idea  of  the  clouds  as  retainers  of  the  sun 
in  his  stately  progress,  dight:  arrayed. 

67.— tells  his  tale:  counts  his  number  (of  sheep). 


118  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

70.—landskip:  an  older  spelling  of  ' 'landscape, "  the 
suffix  being  the  same  as  in  friends/wp,  worship,  etc. 

71.— fallows:  ploughed  land  unsown;  originally,  "pale- 
colored,  ''  as  in  fallow-deer. 

75. — pied:  variegated,  like  a  (mag)pie. 

78. — bosomed:  surrounded  breast-high. 

79.— lies:  dwells. 

80. — cynosure:  literally,  "dog's  tail,"  a  name  given  to 
that  part  of  the  constellation  of  the  Lesser  Bear  in  which 
the  polestar  is  situated,  whence  the  present  use  in  the 
sense  of  an  object  to  which  all  eyes  are  directed.  Cf. 
Comus,  ver.  342  and  note. 

83-8. — Corydon  and  Thyrsis  . .  .  Phyttis  ...  .  Thestylis: 
typical  names  of  peasants  in  the  pastoral  poetry  of  Theo- 
critus and  Vergil. 

85. — messes:  dishes. 

87. — bower:  chamber. 

91. — secure:  used  in  the  literal  sense  of  "free  from  care." 

92. — upland:  remote  from  towns. 

94. — rebeck:  a  musical  instrument  now  obsolete,  which 
resembled  a  fiddle,  but  had  fewer  strings. 

96. — chequered:  i.  e.,  with  the  sun  shining  through  the 
spaces  between  the  leaves. 

100. — spicy.  The  practice  of  flavoring  ale  and  wine 
with  nutmeg  and  other  spices  was  common. 

102. — Faery  Mob.  See  Romeo  and  Juliet,  I,  iv,  54-95, 
and  Shelley '  s  Queen  Mab.  M.  quotes  Jonson's  Satyr, 

beginning: 

This  is  Mab,  the  mistress  Fairy, 
That  doth  nightly  rob  the  dairy. 

junkets:  originally,  a  kind  of  cream-cheese  (wrapt  in 
rushes,  from  Italian  giunco,  a  rush),  and  now  most 
commonly  used  of  curds  and  cream. 

103.—; pinched.  This  was  the  usual  sign  of  the  anger 
of  the  fairies.  Cf.  the  sufferings  of  Falstaff  in  The  Merry 
Wives  of  Windsor,  V,  v,  96,  103-105. 


NOTES-L'  ALLEGRO  119 

103,  4. — she.  .  .  he:    individuals  in  the  company. 
104.— Friar's  lantern.    The  allusion  is  to  the  ignis 

fatuus,  known  by  various  popular  names>  such  as  " Will- 
o'-the-wisp,"  "Jack  o'  Lanthorn,"  etc.  Friar's  has, 
in  all  probability,  no  connection  with  Friar  Rush,  a 
demon  of  folk-lore  who  was  disguised  as  a  friar.  Scott, 
however,  as  the  New  English  Dictionary  notes,  has 
confused  the  two,  probably  misinterpreting  Milton:— 

Better  we  had  through  mire  and  bush 
Been  lanthorn-led  by  Friar  Rush. 

— Marmion,  IV,  1. 

104,  5. — The  punctuation  here  is  that  of  the  first  edi- 
tion, making  he  the  subject  of  tells.     If  this  is  thought 
to  crowd  the  sense  too  much,  the  reading  of  the  second 
edition  may  be  taken,  with  a  period  after  led,  and  the 
subject  of  tells  to  be  supplied. 

105-114.— Cf.  Burton,  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  I,  i\, 
1,  2,  (quoted  by  Warton  and  others): — "A  bigger  kind 
there  is  of  them  [i.  e. ,  spirits]  called  with  us  hobgob- 
lins and  Robin  Goodfellows,  that  would  in  these  super- 
stitious times  grind  corn  for  a  mess  of  milk,  cut  wood, 
or  do  any  manner  of  drudgery  work." 

1 1 0.— lubber:  clumsy,  doltish. 

1 1 1. — chimney:  fireplace. 

113. — crop:  here  used  for  "stomach." 

1 17. — M.  thinks  that  what  follows  is  meant  to  suggest 
merely  L' Allegro's  evening  reading.  But  it  seems  more 
naturally  taken  as  describing  actual  experiences  in  the 
city,  just  as  the  previous  passage  has  described  actual 
country  sights.  In  a  poem  dealing  with  a  series  of  typ- 
ical occupations,  there  is  no  need  to  make  it  possible  to 
fit  them  into  a  practicable  time-table  for  one  day,  and  it 
is  no  objection  that  no  means  are  provided  to  transport 
L*  Allegro  to  the  town. 


120  MILTOK'S  MINOR  POEMS 

120. — weeds:  garments.  There  are  two  weeds  in 
English.  In  what  modern  phrase  do  we  find  the  one 
here  used?  triumphs:  pageants,  spectacles. 

121. — store:  abundance. 

122. — influence.  The  original  use  of  this  word  had 
reference  to  the  astrological  belief  in  the  power  of  the 
stars  over  human  destiny.  The  easy  comparison  of 
bright  eyes  to  stars  strengthens  the  suggestion  that  the 
poet  had  the  original  sense  of  the  word  in  mind  here. 

123.— The  references  are  to  contests  in  poetry  and  to 
tournaments,  in  both  of  which  ladies  were  accustomed 
to  award  the  prize. 

124. — her:  i.  e.t  the  presiding  lady — Queen  of  Love, 
Queen  of  the  Tourney,  or  whatever  her  title  might  be  for 
the  particular  occasion. 

125-8. — Milton  has  in  mind  the  court  masques 
which  reached  their  highest  degree  of  splendor  in  the 
reigns  of  James  I.  and  Charles  I.  See  Introduction, pp.  34  ff. 

125. — Hymen:  the  God  of  Marriage,  a  common  figure 
in  masques,  since  they  were  frequently  presented  on  the 
occasion  of  the  marriages  of  nobles.  Cf.  As  You  Like  It, 
V,  iv,  113  ff.,  and  Ben  Jonson's  Masque  of  Hymen. 

1 26. — saffron.  In  the  masques,  Hymen  appeared  in  a 
yellow  robe. 

132,  3.— Milton  here  points  out  the  familiar  contrast 
between  the  learning  shown  in  Jonson's  plays,  and  the 
spontaneity  and  natural  genius  of  Shakspere' s.  On  the 
ground  of  the  comparatively  faint  praise  given  here  to 
Shakspere,  and  of  one  or  two  other  passages  equally 
doubtful,  some  have  based  the  opinion  that  Milton  had 
an  inadequate  appreciation  of  Shakspere. 

132. — sock.  The  soceus  was  the  low-heeled  slipper 
worn  by  actors  in  the  classical  comedy,  as  opposed  to 
the  high-heeled  buskin  used  in  tragedy.  Cf.  11  Pens., 
ver.  102: 


NOTES— 1L  PENSEROSO  121 

1 33. — Fancy:  used  in  the  wider  sense  of  "Imagination." 

135. — Note  that  these  lines  describing  L' Allegro's  mu- 
sical diversions  are  the  most  melodious  in  the  poem. 

136. — Lydian.  The  three  "modes' '  of  ancient  music 
were  the  Dorian,  the  Phrygian,  and  the  Lydian,  char- 
acterized respectively  by  stateliness,  liveliness,  and  soft- 
ness. 

138. — meeting:  responsive.    Soul  is  the  object  of.  pierce. 

139 — bout:  literally,  a  "bend"  or  "round;"  here,  a 
"passage." 

141. — Note  the  apparent  contradiction  between  ad- 
jectives and  nouns.  The  adjectives  describe  the  ap- 
pearance of  unconsciousness  in  a  work  of  art  where  the 
perfection  is  shown  in  the  concealment  of  the  pains 
taken.  The  figure  used  here  is  called  oxymoron. 

142-4. — "The  accompanied  voice  is  meant,  otherwise 
there  would  be  melody,  but  not  harmony"  (B.). 

145.  —  Orpheus:  the  famous  mythical  poet  and  musi- 
cian, who,  when  his  wife  Eurydice  died,  descended  into 
Hades,  and  so  charmed  by  his  music  the  rulers  of  the 
underworld  that  he  was  permitted  to  take  his  wife  away 
with  him,  on  condition  that  he  should  not  gaze  around 
him  as  he  returned  through  the  shades.  But,  just  as 
he  was  leaving,  he  looked  behind,  and  Eurydice  had  to 
remain — hence  quite  and  half-regained. 

147.—  Ely sian.  In  the  Greek  mythology,  the  Elysian 
fields  were  the  abode  of  the  blessed  after  death. 

149.—  Pluto:  the  god  of  the  underworld. 

^  IL  PENSEROSO 

Title— The  statement  made  by  Mark  Pattison  that 
Milton  was  mistaken  as  to  both  the  form  and  the  mean- 
ing of  this  word  has  been  disproved  by  W.  H.  David 
(Notes  and  Queries,  7th  series,  VIII,  326).  The  word  is 


122  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

correct  Italian  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  means 
"pensive"  or  "meditative." 

3. — bested' (or  bestead):  help,  avail. 

Q.—fond:  foolish,  the  original  meaning,  possess:  take 
possession  of,  enter  into.  The  object  of  possess  is  fancies. 

6-9. — The  gaudy  shapes  are  most  like  to  dreams. 

10. — pensioners:  retinue. 

14. — hit:  meet,  agree  with,  be  tolerable  to. 

15. — weaker:  the  comparative  used  in  the  sense  of  "too 
weak." 

17,  18. — i.  e.,  though  she  seems  black,  yet  her  beauty 
is  as  estimable  as  befits  the  sister  of  Memnon. 

18. — Memnon:    the  Ethiopian  prince,  famous  for  his 
beauty,  who  fought  for  Troy  (Odyssey,  xi,  552).    His  sis- 
ter, Hemera,  is  mentioned  by  Dictys,  but  the  fact  of  her 
beauty  seems  to  have   been  inferred  by  Milton  from 
,  Homer's  statement  about  Memnon. 

19. — starred  Ethiop  queen:  Cassiopeia,  who  boosted 
that  she  (or,  according  to  a  common  version,  her  daugh- 
ter Andromeda)  was  more  beautiful  than  the  Nereids. 
These  latter  persuaded  Poseidon  to  send  floods  and  a 
monster  to  ravage  the  land.  Andromeda  was  given  up 
to  the  monster  in  atonement,  but  was  rescued  by  Perseus. 
Both  mother  and  daughter  were  afterwards  placed  among 
the  constellations:  hence  starred. 

23. — Vesta:  the  goddess  of  the  hearth.  In  her  worship 
special  stress  was  laid  on  purity. 

24,  5. — Saturn.  This  god  was  reputed  the  founder  of 
civilization.  The  derivation  of  Melancholy  from  Purity 
and  Solitude  or  Culture,  is,  like  the  second  one  suggested^ 
for  Euphrosyne  in  U  Allegro,  of  the  poet's  own  manufac- 
ture. Milton  probably  also  had  in  mind  the  astrological 
belief  that  the  influence  of  Saturn  made  men  morose. 
(Cf,  Saturnine.)  Saturn's  reign  is  the  fabled  golden  age. 


NOTES-IL  PENSEROSO  123 

29. — Ida:  the  mountain  in  Crete  where  Jupiter  was 
reared. 

30. — Jupiter  (Zeus),  according  to  the  myth,  overthrew 
Saturn  (Cronus). 

33.— grain:  originally  a  small  seed,  but  used  especially 
of  the  insect  coccus  from  which  the  red  cochineal  dye  ia 
made.  Hence  "to  dye  in  grain"  meant  to  dye  a  fast 
color,  in  Comus,  ver.  750,  red,  but  here  and  in  Par.  Lost, 
XI,  242,  3,  probably  a  dark  purple. 

35. — stole:  sometimes  a  long  robe,  or,  in  ecclesiastical 
vestments,  a  scarf,  but  here  more  probably  in  the  sense 
of  a  veil  or  hood,  since  her  robe  has  already  been  men- 
tioned, cypress:  (probably  from  Cyprus,  the  island  in 
the  Mediterranean,  New  English  Dictionary)  made  of 
cypress  or  crape,  lawn:  a  fine  linen. 

36. — decent:  comely. 

37. — state:  stateliness,  dignity. 

39. — commercing:  having  intercourse. 

40. — rapt:  originally  past  participle  of  verb  rap,  to 
transport. 

41. — still.    Adjective  or  adverb? 

43. — sad:  serious,  rather  than  "sorrowful.'1  "Leaden 
was  the  Saturnian  colour"  (M,).  cast:  turn  of  the  eyes, 
gaze. 

44. — i.  e.9  fix  your  eyes  as  fast  on  earth  as  formerly  on 
heaven. 

45-8. — Milton  here  implies  his  favorite  doctrine  of 
the  necessity  of  temperance  for  the  highest  inspiration. 

47,  8. — "The  Muses  haunt  the  hill  of  Helicon,  mighty 
f  and  divine,  and  dance  with  tender  feet  around  the  fount- 
ain and  the  altar  of  the  great  son  of  Kronion"  (Hesiod's 
Theogony — quoted  by  V.). 

52-4. — See  Ezekiel  X.  The  name  Contemplation  seems 
to  have  been  given  to  the  Cherub  by  Milton.  To  the 


124  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

Cherubim  was  attributed  knowledge,  to  the  Seraphim, 
love. 

55.— hist.  This  may  be  (1)  an  imperative  in  the  sense 
of  "bring  silently/'  or  (2)  a  past  participle  in  the  sense 
of  "hushed,"  silence  being  then  an  object  of  bring,  ver.  51. 

56. — Philomel.  Philomela,  daughter  of  Pandion,  King 
of  Attica,  was  changed  into  a  nightingale  in  order  to  save 
her  from  Tereus,  her  brother-in-law. 

57.— plight:  mood. 

59.— Cynthia:  Diana,  who  was  born  on  Mt.  Cynthus  in 
Delos.  The  moon  is  here  represented  as  checking  her 
car  to  listen  to  the  nightingale  singing  in  its  haunt  in  the 
oak-tree.  The  attributing  of  a  dragon  yoke  to  Diana  in- 
stead of  to  Ceres  has  been  regarded  as  Milton's  own 
transference,  but  in  Dekker's  Song  of  the  Cyclops  in  Lon- 
don's Tempe  (1629)  I  find 

We  shoe  the  horses  of  the  sun, 
Harness  the  dragons  of  the  moon, 

and  in  A  Midsummer  Night' 's  Dream,  III,  ii,  379, 

For  night's  swift  dragons  cut  the  clouds  full  fast. 

65.— unseen:  in  direct  contrast  with  IS  All.,  ver.  57. 

73.— plat:  plot. 

74. — curfew:  (Fr.  couvrirt  to  cover;  feuy  fire)  the  bell 
rung  at  eight  or  nine  o' clock  in  the  evening  as  a  signal 
to  put  out  all  fires.  The  practice  of  ringing  the  curfew 
goes  back  at  least  to  the  Conquest,  and  was  meant  to 
prevent  risk  of  conflagration. 

78. — removed:  remote. 

80.— "The  light  of  the  fire  is  so  soft  as  to  be  a  kind  of 
darkness"  (V.).  "The  'glowing  embers'  make  'darkness 
visible* "  (T.).  The  phrase  is  probably  meant  to  be 
suggestive  rather  than  exact,  and  to  refer  vaguely  to  the 
black  shadows  that  throng  a  fire-lit  room. 

83. — bellman:  the  night-watchman  who  used  to  patrol 
the  city  streets,  keeping  order,  and  announcing  the  hours 


NOTES-IL  PENSEROSO  126 

and  the  state  of  the  weather.    The  kind  of  charms  they 
recited  may  be  gathered  from  Herrick's  verses: — 

From  noise  of  scare-fires  rest  ye  free, 
From  murders  Benedicitie. 
From  all  mischances,  that  may  fright 
Your  pleasing  slumbers  in  the  night: 
Mercie  secure  ye  all,  and  keep 
The  Goblin  from  ye,  while  ye  sleep. 
Past  one  o'clock,  and  almost  two, 
My  masters  all,  Good  day  to  you. 
— Grosart's  ed.  of  Herrick,  Lond.,  1876,  II,  28. 

84. — nightly:  by  night  (not  "every  night"). 

87. — i.  e.,  all  night,  as  the  Bear  never  sets,  but  disap- 
pears only  with  the  coming  of  daylight. 

88. — with:  studying  Hermes  Trismegistus  (i.  e.,  thrice 
great),  the  fabled  Egyptian  philosopher  and  king,  had 
ascribed  to  him  a  number  of  forged  writings,  and  was 
credited  with  the  invention  of  magic  and  the  black  arts 
generally,  unsphere:  call  from  the  sphere  it  now  inhabits. 

89-96. — The  references  here  are  to  the  subjects  dis- 
cussed in  Plato's  Phaedo.  The  whole  passage  means 
simply  that  II  Penseroso  would  enjoy  sitting  up  all 
night  reading  Hermes  and  Plato. 

93. — Some  such  word  as  "tell"  should  be  understood 
before  of  those.  Demons:  the  spirits  inhabiting  the  four 
elements,  fire,  air,  earth,  and  water,  into  which  the 
Greek  and  Medieval  philosophers  divided  the  material 
universe. 

95.— consent:  agreement,  influence.  The  reference  is 
to  astrology. 

98.—  sceptred:  because  tragedy  dealt  with  the  calami- 
ties of  princes,  pall:  "Lat.  palla,  the  mantle  worn  by 
tragic  actors"  (V.). 

99, 100.— The  chief  subjects  of  Greek  tragedy  were 
drawn  from  the  stories  of  the  royal  house  of  Thebes,  the 
descendants  of  Pelops,  and  the  Trojan  War. 


126  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

101,  2.— A  somewhat  slighting  reference  to  the  Eliza- 
bethan and  Jacobean  drama.  For  buskined  cf.  IS  All. , 
ver.  131  and  note. 

104. — Musaem:  a  mythical  singer,  sometimes  said  to  be 
the  son  of  Orpheus. 

105-8.— See  note  on  L'AU.,  ver.  145-150. 

109-15. — The  references  here  are  to  the  Squire's  Tale, 
which  Chaucer  left  unfinished.  Cambuscan  ( which 
Chaucer  accented  on  the  last  syllable)  is  a  corrupted  form 
of  Genghis  Khan,  the  name  of  the  eastern  ruler  at  whose 
court  the  story  opens.  Camball  and  Algarsife  were  his 
sons,  and  Canace  his  daughter.  Canace  received  gifts  of  a 
ring  that  enabled  her  to  understand  the  language  of  birds 
and  to  know  the  medicinal  properties  of  plants,  and  a 
mirror  in  which  one's  future  could  be  seen.  Cambuscan 
himself  received  a  horse  of  brass  which,  by  the  turning  of 
a  pin,  would  bear  the  rider  any  distance  he  pleased  in 
twenty-four  hours,  and  a  sword  which  would  cut  through 
anything,  and  the  wounds  from  which  could  be  cured 
only  by  being  stroked  by  the  flat  of  the  sword  itself. 

1 13. — virtuous:  having  virtue  or  exceptional  power. 

116. — The  allusion  best  fits  Spenser  and  the  Faerie 
Queene.  The  plural  bards  may  be  meant  to  include  other 
writers  of  chivalrous  poetry,  such  as  Tasso  and  Ariosto. 

120.— A  reference  to  the  allegory  in  the  Faerie  Queene 
and  similar  works. 

122. — civil-suited:  quietly  dressed,  i.  e.,  in  plain  citizen 
garb,  as  differing  from  court  or  military  dress  (M.). 

123.— tricked:  adorned,    frounced:  with  hair  curled. 

124. — the  Attic  boy:  Cephalus,  grandson  of  the  King  of 
Attica,  whom  Eos,  goddess  of  the  Dawn,  carried  off  on 
account  of  his  beauty. 

125.— With  a  cloud  worn  like  a  kerchief  on  her  head. 

127. — ushered:  attended,  shown  in.  Still  is  an  adj. 
here. 


NOTES— IL  PENSEROSO  127 

130. — minute-drops:  drops  falling  at  intervals  of  a 
minute. 

134. — brown:  used  for  "dark,"  without  emphasis  on 
particular  color.  Sylvan:  Silvanus,  the  old  Italian  god  of 
woods  and  fields. 

135. — monumental:  memorial  of  past  times,  with  the 
additional  idea  of  "massiveness." 

140. — profaner.  This  is  sometimes  taken  as  equiva- 
lent to  "too  profane,"  like  the  Latin  absolute  compara- 
tive. Cf.  weaker  in  ver.  15. 

141. — garish:  staring. 

145. — consort:  so  spelled  means  strictly  "partner." 
But  the  word  was  often  confused  with  "concert,"  and 
may  be  so  here,  in  the  sense  of  "harmony." 

147-50. — This  passage  is  very  obscure,  and  no  satis- 
factory interpretation  has  yet  been  offered.  V.  para- 
phrases thus: — "Let  some  dream  float  with  undulating 
motion,  (i.  e.,  wave)  at  the  wings  of  Sleep,  amid  a  stream  of 
vivid  pictures  which  rest  lightly  on  the  eyelids."  But 
the  use  of  at  is  peculiar,  and  it  is  not  clear  that  his  in 
ver.  148  refers  to  sleep  and  not  to  dream.  Dunster  here 
again  quotes  from  Syl vested  a  passage  which  Milton  seems 
to  have  had  in  mind: —  \ 

Confusedly  about  the  silent  bed, 
Fantastic  swarms  of  dreams  there  hovered, 
Green,  red,  and  yellow,  tawny,  black,  and  blue; 
They  make  no  noise  but  right  resemble  may 
Th'  unnumber'd  moats  that  in  the  sunbeams  play. 
— Considerations  on  Milton' s  Early  Heading,  etc.,  p.  70, 

154. — Genius:  guardian  spirit. 

155.— due.  His  feet  are  due  in  the  cloister  in  the  sense 
that  it  is  the  appropriate  place  for  such  a  man.  Cf. 
Comus,  ver.  11.  But  Keightley  explains  it  thus,  "Denot- 
ing that  it  was  his  constant  resort,"  and  he  has  been 
much  quoted. 


128  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

156.— pale:  enclosed  place.  Cloister  has  also  literally 
this  meaning,  but  Milton  had  in  mind  the  special  appli- 
cation of  the  word  to  the  covered  walks  in  the  English 
Colleges. 

157. — love.  We  have  to  supply  a  new  subject  here: 
let  me  love.  embowZd:  vaulted. 

158. — antique.  If  we  retain  Milton's  own  spelling, 
antick,  the  meaning  would  be  "fancifully  ornamented." 
massy-proof:  proof  against  mass,  i.  e.,  able  to  bear  the 
weight. 

159. — storied:  painted  with  (Scripture)  histories. 
dight:  decorated.  Cf.  L'AIL,  ver.  62. 

161-6. — If  we  suppose  this  poem  to  be  an  indication 
of  Milton's  personal  tastes,  we  see  that  at  this  time  he 
was  far  from  feeling  the  antagonism  towards  the  ritual  of 
the  Church  which  he  shows  later  in  his  prose  writings. 
See  Introduction,  p.  47. 

169. — hairy  gown:  the  coarse  dress  of  the  hermit. 

170. — spell:  study  laboriously. 

171. — of.  The  sense  would  be  unaltered  by  the  omis- 
sion of  this  preposition.  It  may  be  taken  as  equivalent 
to  "about." 

COMUS 

For  the  occasion  and  the  actors,  see  Introduction, 
pp.  33  ff. 

I    Title.— Comus.   The  name  is  from  a  Greek  word  mean- 
/  ing  "revel"  01  "band  of  revelers."  The  personification  as 
/   the  God  of  Mirth  belongs  to  late  classical  mythology.  He 
/     had  already  appeared  in  English  literature  in  Jonson's 
/      masque  of  Pleasure  Reconciled  to  Virtue  (1619),  and  still 
'       earlier  in  French,      presented:  represented,  acted.      dis- 
covers: reveals,  the  usual  technical  term  for  displaying  a 
scene  on  the  stage. 

Iff.— This  opening  speech  by  the  Attendant  Spirit 
serves  as  a  sort-  of  prologue  to  explain  the  situation. 


NOTES-COMUS  129 

2. — those:  L  e.,  those  well  known. 

3. — insphered.  It  has  been  questioned  whether  this 
means  "each  in  his  separate  star,"  or  refers  to  the 
spheres  of  the  Ptolemaic  system.  But  perhaps  it  is  bet- 
ter taken  as  merely  * 'surrounded  by  regions, "  etc. 

7. — pestered:  clogged,  hampered,  pinfold:  properly  "a 
pound  for  cattle:"  here,  "a  narrow  enclosure." 

8. — this  mortal  change.  The  "change  by  death"  is  the 
meaning  that  first  strikes  one,  but  the  use  of  this  inclines 
us  to  accept  M.'s  explanation,  "this  mortal  state  of  life." 

1 1. — gods:  saints  in  the  company  of  God. 

12. — due.    Cf.  II  Pens.,  ver.  155  and  note. 

16.— ambrosial:  heavenly,  as  ambrosia  was  the  food  of 
the  gods.  For  weeds,  cf.  IS  AIL,  ver.  120  and  note. 

17. — mould:  earth,  rather  than  the  human  form  he  ia 
wearing. 

18-23.— When  Saturn's  empire  was  divided,  Neptune 
was  assigned  the  Sea,  Jupiter  Heaven,  Pluto  Hades; 
hence  nether  Jove  =  Pluto. 

23. — unadorned:  i.  e.,  otherwise  unadorned. 

25. — i.  e.,  each  island  to  its  own  governing  deity. 

29. — quarters:  assigns,  blue-haired:  from  the  color  of 
the  sea.  V.  notes  that  this  was  the  conventional  color 
of  sea-nymphs'  hair  in  the  masques,  and  Bell  (quoted  by 
T. )  traces  the  epithet  back  to  Ovid. 

30.—  this  tract:  Wales. 

31.— peer:  the  Earl  of  Bridge  water,  to  celebrate  whose 
installation  as  Lord  President  of  Wales,  Comus  was  pro- 
duced, mickle:  great.  The  word  survives  in  Scottish. 

33. — i.  e.,  of  course,  the  Welsh. 

35. — state:  referring  to  the  ceremony  of  installation. 
Cf.  L'AIL,  ver.  60  and  note. 

37.— perplexed:  entangled. 

38. — horror:  used  with  the  classical  connotation  of 
•'rough,"  ''shaggy,"  "bristling." 


130  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

45. — hall  or  bower:  in  the  general  assemblage  in  the 
hall  of  state,  or  in  the  lady's  chamber. 

43-5.— V.  takes  this  as  a  claim  to  originality  for  the 
whole  work,  but  it  seems  rather  to  be  an  admission 
that  the  character  and  parentage  of  Comus  are  of  Milton's 
own  invention. 

48.— The  reference  is  to  the  story  of  Bacchus,  who, 
sailing  to  Naxos,  was  seized  and  bound  by  the  sailors, 
who  intended  to  sell  him  as  a  slave.  But  he  freed  him- 
self from  his  fetters,  turned  the  masts  and  oars  into  ser- 
pents and  himself  into  a  lion,  while  the  sailors  went 
mad,  jumped  overboard,  and  were  changed  into  dolphins. 
transformed:  note  the  Latinism  in  the  use  of  the  past 
participle. 

49. — Tyrrhene  shore:  the  western  shore  of  the  central 
part  of  Italy. 

49.—  listed:  willed. 

55. — The  association  of  ivy  with  Bacchus  was  tradi- 
tional. Cf.  L'Att.,  ver.  16. 

59.— frolic  .  .  .  age:  rejoicing  in  his  prime. 

60. — Celtic  and  Iberian  fields:  France  and  Spain. 

65. — orient.  The  associations  which  the  word  carries 
are  of  brightness,  richness,  and  mystery. 

66. — drouth:  dry  ness,  thirst. 

67.— fond:  foolish.     Cf.  11  Pens.,  ver.  6  and  note. 

69. — express:  complete  and  exact. 

71. — ounce:  a  kind  of  lynx. 

77.— In  Homer's  account  of  Circe,  the  minds  of  the 
victims  remain  unchanged.  This  gives  greater  pathos, 
but  Milton's  version  implies  greater  degradation. 

83.—  Iris:  the  goddess  of  the  rainbow. 

84.— weeds.    Cf.  V All.,  ver.  120  and  note. 

86.-— Thia  is  usually  interpreted  as  a  compliment  to 
Lawes,  who  wrote  the  music  for  the  masque. 


NOTES— COMUS  131 

87. — knows  to  still:  another  Latinism.  Cf.  Lyc.t  ver. 
10, 11,  "He  knew  Himself  to  sing." 

88. — nor... faith:  nor  less  faithful  than  skilful  in 
music. 

89-91. —He  explains  his  choice  of  a  disguise  by  say- 
ing that  as  a  shepherd  his  appearance  will  be  plausible  in 
this  place  where  he  has  to  be  at  hand  to  give  assistance. 

92. — viewless:  invisible. 

Stage  direction. — rout:  unruly  crowd. 

93. — star:  the  evening  star,  Hesperus,  fold:  the  verb 
horn  fold,  a  sheep  pen. 

96.— allay:  cool. 

97. — steep:  deep,  or  descriptive  of  the  rising  appear- 
ance of  the  sea  seen  from  the  shore,  stream:  the  ancients 
regarded  the  Atlantic  as  a  great  stream  flowing  round 
the  earth. 

98, — slope:  that  has  sloped  down  below  the  horizon. 

100, 1.  Critics  usually  quote  Psalm  XIX,  4,  5,  "In 
them  hath  he  set  a  tabernacle  for  the  sun,  which  is  as  a 
bridegroom  coming  out  of  his  chamber." 

105. — rosy  twine:  wreaths  of  roses. 

110. — saws:  maxims. 

\12.~— starry  quire:  referring  to  the  belief  that  the 
spheres  make  music  as  they  move.  Quire  is  the  older 
spelling  of  choir.  From  the  next  line  it  appears  that 
the  spirits  inhabiting  the  spheres  are  meant. 

115. — sounds:  straits,  the  geographical  term. 

116. — morrice:  morrice  or  Moorish  dance. 

1 1 8.— pert:  smart,    dapper:  neat,  dainty. 

121 . — wakes:  night  watches. 

l29.—Cottyto:  a  Thracian  goddess  of  debauchery, 
whose  licentious  rites  were  celebrated  by  night. 

131. — called:  invoked,  dragon-womb:  "alluding  per- 
haps to  the  idea  that  the  chariot  of  the  night  was 
drawn  by  dragons"  (V.)  or  "that  the  womb  of  darknes3 
breeds  monsters"  (T.).  Cf.  note  to  II  Pens.,  ver.  59. 


132  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

132. — Stygian:  of  the  underworld;  from  Styx,  one 
of  the  four  rivers  of  Hades,  spets:  spits. 

135.— Hecat':  Hecate,  the  goddess  of  witchcraft, 
often  confused  with  the  goddess  of  Hades. 

139.—  nioe:  fastidious,  prudish  (used  sneeringly).  In- 
dian steep:  the  eastern  ascent  of  the  heavens. 

140. — cabined.  "Confined,"  "narrow,"  is  the  usual 
meaning,  but  it  does  not  seem  very  appropriate  here. 
The  phrase  is  perhaps,  better  understood  as  equivalent  to 
"the  loop-hole  of  her  cabin,"  the  cabined  being  used 
merely  to  make  loop-hole  more  vivid,  but  not  to  be  empha- 
sized itself. 

144. — round:  a  country  dance. 

Stage  direction.  —  The  Measure:  i.  e.t  the  dance  takes 
place  here. 

147.—  shrouds:  covers,  hiding  placeSo  brakes:  brush- 
wood, undergrowth. 

151. — trains:  snares. 

154.— spongy:  that  can  hold  the  spells  as  a  sponge 
holds  water. 

1 56 . — blear  illusion:  il lusion  that  makes  bleared  or  dim. 
presentments:  pictures,  appearances. 

157. — quaint  habits:  odd  garments. 

159. — course:  plan  of  action. 

161. — glozing:  flattering,  deceptive. 

163. — wind:  creep  like  a  serpent,  insinuate'myself  into 
his  bosom. 

165. — virtue:  power.  Cf .  11  Pens.,  ver.  113,  "virtuous 
ring." 

167. — Keeps  awake  about  his  country  affairs. 

168.— -fairly:  quietly.  "Fair  and  softly"  was  a  com- 
mon phrase  meaning  "gently." 

172. — ill-managed:  uncontrolled. 

475. — teeming:  fruitful,    granges:  granaries. 


NOTES— COMDS  133 

176. — loose:  loose-mannered,  without  polite  restraint. 
hinds:  peasants.  Pan:  the  god  of  shepherds  and  of 
country  life  generally. 

177.— amiss:  in  the  wrong  way,  for  they  misuse  their 
gifts. 

178. — swilled  insolence:  insolence  caused  by  swilling  or 
drinking  freely. 

179. — wassailers:  carousers,  from  wassail,  to  drink  a 
health. 

180. — inform:  get  information  or  direction  for. 

189. — sad:  serious,  votarist:  one  who  has  taken  a  vow. 
palmer:  one  who  bears  a  palm-branch  in  token  of  having 
been  to  the  Holy  Land  (Skeat). 

190.— wain: , wagon. 

193. — engaged:  entangled. 

203. — rife:  abundant,    perfect:  quite  distinct. 

205.— single:  perfect,  complete,  unmixed. 

210. — may  startle  well:  may  indeed  startle. 

212. — strong-siding:  taking  one's  side  strongly. 

214.— girt:   surrounded,  or  simply,  "furnished  with." 

215. — Chastity.  We  expect  "charity,"  to  complete 
the  Pauline  trinity,  but  Milton  uses  this  device  to  em- 
phasize chastity,  the  main  theme  of  the  poem. 

21 9. —glistering:  shining.     Cf.  Lyc.9  ver.  79. 

225. — casts:  grammatically  coordinate  with  does  rather 
than  with  turn. 

231. — airy  shell:  the  atmosphere. 

232. — Meander:  a  river  in  Asia  Minor,  whose  winding 
course  has  given  us  the  word  "meander."  mar  gent: 
margin. 

237. — Narcissus:  a  beautiful  youth  whom  Echo  loved 
in  vain,  so  that  she  pined  away  in  grief  till  nothing  was 
left  of  her  but  her  voice. 

241. — Parley:  conversation,  daughter  of  the  sphere:  the 
reference  in  sphere  may  be  to  the  airy  shell  of  ver.  231,  or 


134  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

to  a  theory  that  echo  had  "her  origin  from  the  reverbera- 

tion  of  the  music  of  the  spheres."    Editors  cf.  Milton's 

At   a  Solemn  Music,  ver.  2,   * 'Sphere-born  harmonious 

sisters,  Voice  and  Verse." 

%    243.— Add  the  beauty  of  repetition  to  the  music  of  the 

spheres. 

247. — vocal:  i.  e.,  which  carries  the  voice. 

248. — his:  for  "its,"  i.  e.  of  "something  holy." 

251.— fall:  cadence. 

253. — Sirens:  the  nymphs  described  in  the  Odyssey 
and  elsewhere,  who  lured  mariners  to  their  death  by 
their  singing. 

25&.—flowery-kirtled:  with  garments  made  of,  or  adorn- 
ed with,  flowers.  The  naiads  were  properly  nymphs  of 
fresh  water. 

257 '.—Elysium:  see  note  to  I? All.,  ver.  147.  Scylla;  a 
monster  with  a  bark  like  that  of  a  whelp,  (hence  barking 
in  ver.  258)  afterwards  identified  with  rocks  on  the 
Italian  side  of  the  Straits  of  Messina. 

259. — Charybdis:  the  whirlpool  on  the  Sicilian  side  of 
the  Straits  of  Messina. 

262.—homefelt:  felt  home,  keenly,  intimately. 

263. — ivaking:  i.  e.,  as  contrasted  with  the  dreamy 
pleasure  given  by  the  sirens. 

267.— unless:  supply  "thoube." 

268.— Sylvan:  Silvanus.    See  11  Pens.,  ver.  134,  note. 

271.—  ill  is  lost:  is  unfortunately  lost,  a  Latinism. 

273. — extreme  shift:  last  resort. 

277-90. — This  dialogue  in  alternate  single  lines  is  in 
imitation  of  classical  tragedy. 

279.— near-ushering:  going  immediately  before. 

285.— forestalling:  coming  sooner  than  was  expected. 

286.—  hit:  guess. 

287. — Is  their  loss  important? 

290.— Hebe:  cup-bearer  of  the  gods,  goddess  of  youth. 
Cf.  L'Att.,  ver.  29. 


NOTES-COMUS  135 

291.— what  time.  Cf.  Lyc.}  ver.  28  and  note,  labour- 
ed: tired  with  labour. 

293.—  swnked:  tired  with  toil  (A.  S.,swincan,  to  labour), 
hedger:  a  man  who  mends  hedges,  a  farm  labourer.  This 
method  of  noting  time  is  according  to  classical  tradition, 
though  the  local  color  is  English. 

294.— mantling:  covering  (as  with  a  mantle). 

297.— port:  bearing. 

299. — element:  air,  sky. 

301. — plighted:  folded.  This  plight  is  really  the  same 
word  as  plait  (Lat.  plicare,  to  fold)  and  is  to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  word  of  Teutonic  origin,  plight, 
obligation,  as  in  troth-plight,  strook:  obsolete  form  of 
struck. 

303. — i.  e.y  to  be  undertaken  as  eagerly,  with  such 
bliss  at  the  end.  Note  the  studiously  flattering  tone  of 
Comus's  references  to  the  brothers. 

312. — dingle:  a  narrow  valley  or  dell. 

313. — bosky:  bushy,  bourn:  stream;  more  familiar  in 
the  northern  form  burn. 

314. — ancient:  long  familiar. 

315.—  stray  attendance:  strayed  attendants,  abstract  for 
concrete. 

316. — shroud:  are  sheltered.     Cf.  ver.  147  and  note. 

317. — low-roosted:  because  it  builds  on  the  ground. 

318. — thatched  pallet:  in  reference  to  the  woven  grasses 
with  which  the  lark  lines  its  nest. 

318. — rouse.  This  may  be  taken  as  an  intransitive  use, 
="rise,"  or  lark  may  be  regarded  as  its  object,  and 
morrow  as  its  subject  (M.). 

321.-— further  quest:  till  further  search  is  made. 

325. — In  reference  to  the  derivation  of  courtesy  from 
court. 

327. — less  warranted:  giving  less  assurance  of  safety. 
The  general  sense  is:  This  place  is  so  insecure  that  there 
is  no  risk  that  a  change  would  be  for  the  worse. 


136  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

329. — square:  make  fit  or  suffici3nt. 

332.—  wont'st:  art  accustomed,  benison:  benediction, 
blessing. 

334. — disinherit:  dispossess.  So  inherit  is  common  in 
Shaksperean  English  without  the  idea  of  succession. 

338. — rush  candle:  candle  with  the  pith  of  a  rush  for 
a  wick,  wicker  hole:  "the  wretched  wicker-crossed  aper- 
ture, not  worth  the  name  of  a  window"  (M.). 

340.—  rule.  The  figure  is  from  a  rule  for  drawing 
straight  lines. 

341. — Star  . . .  Cynosure.  Callisto,  daughter  of  the  King 
of  Arcady,  was  turned  into  the  constellation  of  the 
Greater  Bear,  and  her  son  Areas  into  that  of  the  Lesser 
Bear.  Greek  sailors  steered  by  the  Greater  Bear,  and 
Phoenician  (including  those  of  Tyre)  by  the  Lesser,  in 
which  is  situated  the  polestar.  For  Cynosure,  see  IS  AIL, 
ver.  80,  note. 

344. — wattled  cotes:  sheep-pens  enclosed  by  hurdles 
made  of  interwoven  branches. 

345.— Cf.  Lye.,  ver.  188  and  note. 

349. — innumerous:  innumerable. 

355. — head.  It  seems  better  to  take  head  as  subject 
of  leans  than  to  supply  "she." 

358. — hunger:  of  wild  beasts;  heat:  of  human  lust. 

359. — over-exquisite:  too  curious,  running  too  much 
into  subtle  detail. 

360. — cast:  forecast,  foretell. 

366.— to  seek:  at  a  loss. 

367. — unprincipled:  ignorant  of  the  principles. 

368. — bosoms:  embosoms,  holds  in  her  heart. 

369. — single:  mere. 

372.— plight:  condition,  from  the  same  source  as  plight- 
td  in  ver.  301,  on  which  see  note. 

376— seeks  to:  has  recourse  to. 

379. — resort:  places  of  resort. 


NOTES— COMUS  137 

380.— to-ruffled.  This  prefix  to-  meant  first  "in  pieces" 
as  in  to-brokerij  then  it  became  merely  intensive  as  here, 
where  the  meaning  is  "much  ruffled." 

382. — centre:  i.  e.,  of  the  earth. 

386.-— affects:  loves. 

390.—  weeds:  cf.  L'AU.t  ver.  120  and  note,  beads: 
rosary:  originally,  "prayers,"  then  "little  balls  for 
counting  prayers." 

393.—  Hesperian  tree:  the  tree  that  bore  the  golden 
apples,  presented  to  Hera  by  Gaea  on  her  marriage  with 
Zeus.  It  was  guarded  by  the  daughters  of  Hesperus,  and 
by  a  dragon  (ver.  395)  which  Hercules  slew  in  his  labour 
of  obtaining  the  Hesperian  apples. 

395.—unenchanted:  not  able  to  be  enchanted. 

398.—  unsunned:  kept  in  the  dark. 

401. — wink  on:  shut  its  eyes  to. 

404. — it  recks  me  not:  I  do  not  trouble  about. 

406. — ill-greeting:  rude. 

407. — unowned:  unmarried  or  unprotected. 

408. — infer:  reason. 

413. — squint:  not  straightforward. 

419. — if:  even  if. 

423. — unharboured:  without  shelters.  The  original  sense 
of  harbour  was  "army-shelter,"  and  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  sea. 

424.—  Infamous.    The  accent  is  on  the  second  syllable. 

426. — trace:  trace  her  way  through. 

4:2G.—bandite:  Milton's  spelling  of  "bandit." 

430. — unblenched.  This  word  combines  the  notions 
of  "unfaltering,"  and  "not  made  pale  by  fear.M 

432,  3.— Cf.  L'AIL,  ver.  104  and  note. 

434. — unlaid.  To  "lay"  a  ghost  is  to  pacify  or  charm 
him  so  that  he  ceases  to  walk. 

435. — curfew.  Cf.  11.  Pens.,  ver.  74,  note.  From  curfew 
to  cock-crow  was  the  period  when  ghosts  were  supposed 
to  be  permitted  to  walk. 


138  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

436 — swart .  .  .  mine.  Popular  superstition  peopled 
mines  with  spirits  of  earth  called  "gnomes." 

443.— brinded:  brindled,  streaked,  literally  "branded." 

447.r-(rm#on.  The  head  of  Medusa,  the  only  one  of 
the  three  Gorgons  who  was  mortal,  regained  its  petrify- 
ing power  even  after  it  waa  cut  off  by  Perseus  and  placed 
in  the  shield  of  Athene.  The  moral  interpretation  of 
the  myths  of  Diana's  invulnerability  by  Cupid  and  of 
the  Gorgon  shield  is  Milton's  own. 

451.— dashed:  suddenly  checked. 

452. — blank:  sheer. 

455. — lackey:  wait  on. 

459. — oft  converse:  frequent  intercourse. 

460.— begin:  subjunctive  mood.  Note  that  the  in- 
dicative is  used  in  turns  (ver.  462),  as  if,  according  to  M;, 
to  show  increased  certainty. 

468. — imbodies  and  imbrutes:  becomes  fleshly  and 
brutish. 

469. — -property:  peculiar  quality. 

463-75.— Warton  notes  that  Milton  here  paraphrases 
a  passage  from  Plato's  Phaedo. 

471. — charnel:  burial. 

474:.— sensually.  It  is  necessary  to  retain  Milton's 
spelling  here  for  the  sake  of  the  metre. 

479. — nectar ed:  heavenly.  Cf.  ambrosial  in  ver.  16  and 
note. 

480. — crude:  unrefined. 

483. — night-foundered*,  lost  in  the  night. 

491.— iron  stakes:  i.  e.,  their  swords. 

494.— Thyrsis:  a  traditional  pastoral  name. 

495.— huddling:  either  hastening,  or  with  the  sense  of 
heaping  up  its  waters  through  delaying,  madrigal:  a 
kind  of  pastoral  song.  The  passage  is  obviously  meant 
as  a  compliment  to  Lawes,  who  acted  Thyrsis,  in  his 
own  character  as  a  musician.  Note  that  ver.  495-512 


NOTES— COMUS  139 

rhyme  in  couplets,  the  rest  of  the  poem  (except  the 
lyrics)  being  in  blank  verse. 

501. — next:  nearest,  dearest. 

502.— toy:  trifle.     Cf.  11  Pens.,  ver.  4. 

503. — stealth:  the  abstract  noun  from  steal. 

506.— to:  compared  to. 

508. — how  chance:  how  chances  it?  According  to  V.,  it 
is  a  combination  of  this  construction  and  the  adverbial 
"by  what  chance?' ' 

509. — sadly:  seriously. 

516.— Stoned.    Cf.  //  Pens.,  ver.  154. 

517. — chimeras:  fire-breathing  monsters,  part  lion,  part 
serpent,  and  part  goat. 

520. — navel:  centre. 

521.  — immured:  walled  in. 

526. — murmurs:  muttered  charms. 

529. — mintage:  stamp,  imprint. 

530.— charactered:  marked,  engraved,  stamped. 

531.— crofts:  small  fields. 

532. — that .  .  .  glade:  overhanging  this  deep  wooded 
valley. 

533. — monstrous  rout:  band  of  monsters. 

534. — stabled:  in  their  lairs. 

535. — Hecate:  goddess  of  witchcraft.  Cf.  ver.  135  and 
note. 

539. — unweeting:  unwitting. 

542. — besprent:  besprinkled. 

547.— meditate:  practise  (imitated  from  Vergil).  Cf. 
Lye.,  ver.  66  and  note. 

548. — ere  a  close:  before  I  had  finished  a  song. 

552.—  i.  e.,  when  Comus  hushed  his  revellers  at  the 
lady's  approach. 

553.  drowsy-flighted.  This  is  the  reading  of  the  Cam- 
bridge MS.,  and  is  preferred  by  M.  and  others,  who  take 
it  as  meaning  "flying  drowsily."  Milton's  early  printed 


140  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

editions  have  "drowsie  frighted,"  i.  e.y  drowsy,  as  being 
the  horses  of  the  chariot  of  sleep,  and  frighted  by  the 
noise  of  Comus  and  his  rout. 

558. — took.  This  is  usually  explained  as  "charmed," 
a  common  Shaksperean  usage,  which  fits  the  context. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  phrase  took  ere  she  was  ware  may 
mean  merely  "taken  unawares,"  "surprised." 

559,  60.— be  .  .  .  displaced:  cease  to  exist,  if  her  place 
could  be  always  taken  by  such  sounds. 

565.— amazed:  confounded,  not  merely  "astonished"  as 
in  modern  English. 

573. — prevent.  Here  it  probably  includes  the  etymo- 
logical sense  of  "anticipate." 

585.— period:  sentence. 

591.— After  meant  supply  "to  be"  or  "to  do." 

592. — happy  trial:  trial  which  will  result  happily. 

597. — pillared:  referring  to  the  ancient  belief  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  the  heavens  were  supported. 

604. — Acheron:  one  of  the  rivers  of  the  lower  world. 
Used  here  for  the  infernal  regions  in  general. 

605. — Harpies:  monstrous  creatures  in  Greek  mythol- 
ogy, half  woman  and  half  bird.  Hydras.  The  Hydra 
was  the  many-headed  serpent  slain  by  Hercules. 

607. — purchase:  acquisition,  prize,  prey. 

610. — emprise:  poetical  form  of  "enterprise." 

611. — stead:  service,  assistance. 

614. — unthread:  unstring,  loosen. 

617. — relation:  tale,    shifts:  skilful  devices. 

620. — to  see  to:  to  look  at.  The  editors  attempt  to 
identify  this  shepherd  lad  with  Milton's  early  friend 
Diodati,  who  taught  him  botany,  and  on  the  occasion  of 
whose  death  Milton  wrote  the  Latin  Epitaphiwn  Damonis. 

621. — virtuous:  see  note  on  ver.  165,  and  cf.  11  Pens., 
ver.  113  and  note. 

626.— scrip:  bag. 


NOTES— COMUS  141 

627. — simples:  medicinal  herbs,  originally  single  ingre- 
dients in  compounded  drugs. 

634.—  like  esteemed:  i.  e.,  likewise  unesteemed. 

636.— M oly:  the  name  of  the  plant  in  the  passage  in 
Homer  here  alluded  to  (Odyssey,  x). 

637. — To  enable  him  to  resist  the  spells  of  Circe. 

638. — Hsemony:  a  name  that  appears  to  have  been  in- 
vented by  Milton  from  Heemonia  or  Thessaly,  the  land 
of  magic. 

639. — sovran:  literally,  "supreme;"  here,"  of  the  high- 
est efficacy." 

641. — Furies:  goddesses  of  vengeance. 

Stage  direction. — goes  about:  makes  an  attempt. 

642.— pursed  it  up:  put  it  away  in  my  purse. 

661. — Daphne:  a  maiden  who  was  pursued  by  Apollo, 
and,  at  her  own  request,  turned  into  a  bay-tree.  The 
syntax  here  is  loose,  but  easily  intelligible. 

672.— julep:  from  a  Persian  word  meaning  "rose- 
water;"  here,  "a  sweet  drink." 

673.—  his:-  its. 

675.— Nepenthes:  cf.  Odyssey,  iv,  219-226:  —  "Then 
Helen,  daughter  of  Zeus  ....  cast  a  drug  into  the  wine 
whereof  they  drank,  a  drug  to  lull  all  pain  and  anger, 
and  bring  forgetfulness  of  every  sorrow.  Whoso  should 
drink  a»  draught  thereof,  when  it  is  .  mingled  in  the 
bowl,  on  that  day  he  would  let  no  tear  fall  down  his 
cheeks,  not  though  his  mother  and  father  died,  not 
though  men  slew  his  brother  or  dear  son  with  the  sword 
before  his  face,  and  his  own  eyes  beheld  it."  (Butcher 
and  Lang's  translation.) 

685. — unexempt  condition:  condition  from  which  no 
mortal  is  exempt. 

688.—  that.  The  antecedent  is  you  in  ver.  682. 

694. — aspects:  appearances,  sights. 

695.— ugly:  Milton's  spelling  is  oughly. 


142  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

698. — vizored:  wearing  a  mask. 

700. — liquorish:  tempting  to  the  appetite. 

707.— budge.  The  word  has  two  meanings:  (1)  a  kind 
of  fur,  (2)  stout,  pompous,  surly.  The  second  one  is  not 
found  elsewhere  as  early  as  the  date  of  Comus,  and  the 
use  of/wr  in  the  same  line  supports  the  view  that  (1)  is 
meant.  If  so,  it  is  probably  an  allusion  to  the  fur  used 
on  academic  gowns,  here  suggested  by  doctors. 

708.— Cynic  tub:  in  reference  to  the  tub  in  which  Di- 
ogenes the  Cynic  philosopher  is  said  to  have  lived.  The 
Stoic  and  the  Cynic  philosophers  are  alluded  to  here  on 
account  of  their  contempt  for  the  pleasures  of  the  senses. 

714. — but  all:  except  merely,  sate:  satisfy,  curious: 
dainty,  critical  (V.);  perhaps  with  a  shade  of  the  sense 
of ' 'inquisitive, "  ' 'eager  to  try  new  sensations." 

719.— hutched:  enclosed. 

722.— frieze:  a  coarse  woolen  cloth. 

734. — they  below.  Various  interpretations  have  been 
made  of  this.  (1)  If  the  deep  =  the  sea,  then  they  below 
=  sea-monsters,  or  (2)  men  (V).  (3)  If  the  deep  =  the 
center  of  the  earth,  then  they  below  =  gnomes  (T). 

735. — inured:  hardened,  accustomed. 

737.— coy:  bashful  or  disdainful— at  this  period  with- 
out the  implication  of  affectation,  cozened:  cheated. 

750.— sorry  grain:  wretched  hue.  Cf.  II  Pens.,  ver. 
33,  note. 

751. — sampler:  a  pattern  piece  of  needlework,  tease: 
to  comb  or  card  wool,  scratch  or  raise  the  nap  of  cloth 
(Skeat).  The  modern  sense  of  "irritate"  is  derived 
from  this. 

759.— pranked:  dressed  up. 

760. — bolt:  to  separate  the  flour  from  the  bran,  hence, 
"to  refine." 

779-806.— This  passage  is  wanting  in  the  earlier 
MSS.  and  seems  to  have  been  added  later. 


NOTES— COMUS  143 

80 1. — set  off:  supported  by. 

804.— Erebus:  the  darkness  of  the  lower  world. 

805.— Saturn? s  crew:  the  Titans  who  supported  Saturn 
against  Jupiter. 

808. — canon  .  .  .  foundation:  the  rules  of  our  company. 
The  figure  is  from  the  ecclesiastical  laws  established  by 
the  Papacy  and  the  Church  Councils;  and  the  word 
foundation  was  familiar  in  connection  with  endowed  in- 
stitutions such  as  the  Colleges  of  the  Universities. 

816,7. — The  idea  is,  of  course,  to  undo  the  force  of 
the  spells  by  reversing  the  process  used  by  Comus. 

822. — Melibceus:  a  traditional  name  for  a  shepherd  in 
pastoral  poetry.  The  story  of  Sabrina  had  been  told  by 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  the  prose  chronicler,  and  by 
Sackville,  Dray  ton,  Warner,  and  Spenser.  Geoffrey  and 
Spenser  have  been  most  frequently  identified  with  Me- 
liboeus  by  the  editors. 

825.— The  masque  was  performed  not  far  from  the 
Severn. 

827. — Locrine.  Mr.  Swinburne  has  written  a  tragedy 
on  this  subject. 

828. — Brute:  from  this  legendary  Brutus  medieval 
writers  derived  the  name  Britain. 

834.— pearled:  adorned  with  pearls.  The  association 
of  pearls  with  water-divinities  was  conventional. 

835. — Nereus:  the  father  of  the  Nereids  or  water- 
nymphs. 

838.—  lavers:  baths,  nectared:  "often  has  much  the 
same  force  as  ambrosial,  i.  e.,  fragrant"  (V.).  In  the 
baths  filled  with  nectar  floated  asphodels,  the  flower 
that  grows  over  the  Elysian  fields  where  the  blessed 
dead  wander. 

845. — helping:  supply  "to  cure",  urchin  blasts:  in- 
fluence of  wicked  elves.  Urchin  is  used  here  in  a 


144  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

sense  intermediate  between  the  original  one  of  "hedge- 
hog' '  (a  beast  of  ill-omen)  and  the  modern  one  of  "small 
child." 

863 — amber-dropping  hair.  This  does  not  seem  to  mean 
anything  more  difficult  than  that  amber-colored  water 
was  dropping  from  her  hair.  Several  editors,  however, 
suppose  that  the  amber  color  was  reflected  from  her 
hair. 

870. — Oceanus:  in  Greek  mythology,  the  god  of  the 
great  river  that  flowed  around  the  earth.  Tethys :  the 
wife  of  Oceanus. 

871.—Nereutf.    Cf.  ver.  835  and  note. 

872. — Carpathian  wizard's  hook.  Proteus,  the  "old 
man  of  the  sea,"  had  the  power  of  prophecy  (whence 
wizard),  lived  on  the  island  of  Carpathos  near  Crete 
(whence  Carpathian),  and  was  the  shepherd  of  the  flocks 
of  Amphitrite,  L  e.,  the  seals  (whence  hook). 

873.— Triton.    Cf.  Lye.,  ver.  89  and  note. 

874. — Glaucus:  a  fisherman  of  Boeotia  who  was  changed 
into  a  sea-god  with  a  gift  of  prophecy. 

875. — Leucothea:  i.  e.,  the  white  goddess — the  name 
given  to  Ino  after  she  had  been  saved  from  drowning 
by  the  dolphins  and  had  been  made  a  sea-goddess. 
Homer  calls  her  "Ino  of  the  fair  ankles."  See  next  note. 

877. — her  son.  When  Ino  threw  herself  into  the  sea 
to  escape  from  her  mad  husband,  Athamas,  she  had  with 
her  Melicertes,'  her  son,  who  also  was  deified  as  Palsemon. 

877.— Thetis:  the  daughter  of  Nereus  and  mother  of 
Achilles,  always  called  "silver-footed"  by  Homer.  Mil- 
ton translates  the  epithet,  using  tinsel  in  the  sense  of 
"silvery,"  "flashing." 

879. — Parthenope:  one  of  the  Sirens  who  was  fabled  to 
have  been  buried  near  Naples. 

880. — Ligea:  another  of  the  Sirens. 

891. — osier:  the  water- willow. 


NOTES-COMUS  j*5 

893. — azurn.  This  derivative  from  azure  occurs  no- 
wttere  else. 

893-5. — The  sense  of  this  passage  seems  to  be  that 
the  chariot  is  inlaid  with  agate,  turquoise,  and  emerald 
colors,  like  the  shifting  blue  and  green  lights  that 
glimmer  through  the"  water  (in  the  channel  strays). 

917. — of  glutinous  heat:  i.  e.,  glutinous  when  heated. 

921. — Amphitrite:  the  wife  of  Neptune. 

923.— In  ver.  827,  Locrine  was  stated  to  be  the  son  of 
Brutus  who  was  descended  from  JEneas,  the  son  of 
Anchises. 

934-7. — The  confusion  of  figure  here  is  due  to  the 
two  conceptions  of  Sabrina  as  a  maiden  and  as  a  river. 
In  the  crowned  head  he  is  thinking  of  the  former,  in  the 
towers  and  groves,  of  the  latter.  Roun:l  (ver.  935)  may  be 
taken  as  an  adverb  modifying  crowned,  and  upon  (ver. 
936)  as  a  preposition  governing  banks. 

945.— covert:  thicket.  Editors  have  noted  that  the 
scene  has  changed  from  the  palace  (cursed  place,  ver.  939), 
but  T.  points  out  that  the  Spirit  may  refer  by  anticipa- 
tion to  the  covert,  everyone  knowing  that  a  forest  lay 
round  the  palace  of  Comus.  This  is  supported,  he  notes 
acutely,  by  the  use  of  thence,  not  "hence,"  in  the  next 
line. 
•  949. — gratulate:  welcome,  rejoice  in, 

963. — Mercury  does  not  seem  to  be  elsewhere  associ- 
ated with  the  wood  nymphs  or  Dryads.  He  may  be 
mentioned  here  on  account  of  his  being  the  god  of  in- 
ventiveness (cf.  devise),  the  discoverer-  of  music,  and 
proverbially  light-footed. 

972. — assays:  tests. 

976-1011.— When  the  masque  was  originally  per- 
formed, this  passage,  with  slight  change,  was  sung  at  the 
opening,  and  the  epilogue  began  at  But  now  my 
ver.  1012, 


146  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS , 

981,  2.— Cf.  ver.  393  and  note. 

985.— spruce:  gay,  fresh. 

9§1. — nard  and  cassia:  aromatic  plants. 

992. — Iris:  goddess  of  the  rainbow.  Cf.  ver,  83,  Irit 
woof, 

995. — purfled:  with  embroidered  edge  (V.). 

999. — Adonis:  the  youth  beloved  of  Venus,  who  died 
of  a  wound  from  a  boar's  tusk.  [The  '  'gardens  of 
Adonis,"  to  which  many  editors  refer  in  connection 
with  this  passage,  are  not  here  alluded  to.] 

1002. — Assyrian  queen:  Ashtaroth,  i.  e:,  Venus.  She 
is  given  her  oriental  name  here  in  recollection  of  the 
eastern  origin  of  the  Adonis  myth. 

1005. — Psyche:  the  soul,  beloved  of  Cupid,  according 
to  a  late  [myth.  Venus  opposed  her  son's  love,  and 
wandering  labors  refers  to  the  tasks  set  by  the  goddess 
for  Psyche  to  perform  before  she  could  gain  immortality 
and  be  united  to  Cupid. 

101 1.— This  offspring  of  Cupid  and  Psyche  is  Milton's 
own  invention. 

1015.— bowed  welkin:  vaulted  heaven. 

LYCIDAS 

Title. — The  name  is  taken  from  the  pastoral  poetry 
of  Theocritus  and  Vergil.  Here  it  stands  for  Edward 
King,  the  subject  of  the  elegy.  Monody:  originally  "a 
solo,7'  then  "a  lament. "  This  argument  was  written  by 
Milton  for  the  second  edition  of  the  poem.. 

1-14. — The  poem  opens  with  a  reference  to  Milton's 
resuming  the  writing  of  poetry — Yet  once  more — after  he" 
had  determined  to  discontinue  it  for  a  time.  * 

1,  2. — laurels  .  .  .  myrtles  .  .  .  ivy:  evergreens  tradition- 
ally  used  for  the  crowning  of  poets.  —. 

2.— brown:  dark.  Cf.  II  Pens. ,  ver.  134  and  note,  sere: 
dry,  withered. 


NOTES- 1  YCIDAS  147 

3. — crude:  unripe  (with  reference  to  his  sense  of  un- 
readiness for  writing  great  poetry). 

5. — shatter:  scatter  (originally  forms  of  the  same  word). 
before .  . .  year:  before  the  autumn  ripens  the  fruit,  i.  e., 
before  time  matures  my  genius. 

6. — dear.  In  Shakspere  this  word  is  used,  as  here,  of 
anything  that  comes  home  to  one  intimately,  whether 
good  or  bad.  constraint:  compulsion. 

7. — compels:  singular  verb,  because  constraint  and  occa- 
sion refer  to  one  idea,  due:  proper. 

9. — peer:  equal. 

10. — knevi  to  sing:  a  Latin  idiom.  In  modern  English 
we  should  say,  ''knew  how." 

1 1 . — rhyme:  used  here  for  verse. 

13. — welter:  toss  about. 

14. — tear.  This  was  a  conventional  figure  for  elegiac 
poetry. 

15. — sisters.  The  Muses  were  goddesses  of  inspiring 
springs,  and  so  were  associated  with  a  number  of 
fountains.  V.  thinks  that  sacred  well  here  is  Aganippe  on 
Mt.  Helicon,  where  there  was  an  altar  to  Jove;  M.  and  B. 
think  it  is  Pieria,  near  Mt.  Olympus,  on  whicfo  were 
the  residences  of  the  gods.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
passage  t<5  give  ground  for  a  definite  conclusion.  Of.  11 
Pens. ,  ver.  47,  8,  and  note. 

18. — coy:  bashful,  difficult  of  access,  disdainful. 

19. — Muse  here  stands  for  "poet."  Note  the  he  in 
ver.  21. 

20. — lucky:  wishing  me  good  luck. 

23-36. — In  this  passage  the  elegy  becomes  clearly 
pastoral.  The  hill,  the  shepherds,  the  rural  ditties,  etc., 
signify  Cambridge,  the  student  society,  college  verses, 
etc.  But  the  allegory  is  not  to  be  interpreted  in  every 
detail,  or  it  becomes  ridiculous.^ 

27. — drove:  supply  "our  flocks." 


148  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

28. — "i.  e.y  heard  the  grey-fly  at  what  time  (i.  e.t  when) 
she  winds  her  sultry  horn"  (T.).  The  grey-fly  is  said  to 
be  the  trumpet-fly,  which  is  heard  in  the  heat  of  noon, 
whence  sultry. 

29. — battening:  feeding.  The  word  is  more  accurately 
used  in  the  intransitive  sense  of  "growing  fat." 

30. — star:  usually  understood  as  Hesperus,  the  evening 
star,  and  an  early  draft  of  the  lines  shows  Milton  had 
this  in  mind  at  one  time.  But  critics  have  pointed  out 
that  strictly  speaking  this  star  does  not  rise  at  sunset, 
but  merely  becomes  visible  then.  Moreover,  it  is  already 
sloping  toward  heaven's  descent  when  it  first  appears. 
Perhaps  Milton  meant  to  signify  the  all-night  sederunts  of 
fellow-students,  in  which  case  the  reference  would  be  to 
any  star  rising  in  the  evening  and  setting  in  the  morning. 

33. — tempered  to:  harmonized  with. 

34. — Satyrs  were  the  sportive  divinities  of  the  fields  in  i 
Greek  mythology,  and  were  later  identified  with  the 
Fauns  of  the  Romans  who  also  were  half  men,  half  goats. 

36. — Damcetas:  a  familiar  name  in  the.pastorajs.  *Here 
it  may  be  taken  as  standing  for  any  of  the  older  men  in 
authority  about  the  University. 

40. — gadding:  straggling. 

45. — canker:  the  canker-worm  that  gnaws  the  hearts 
of  flowers. 

46. — taint-worm.  The  particular  worm  referred  to  is 
not  known,  weanling:  lately  weaned. 

48. — white-thorn:  the  hawthorn,  as  distinguished  from 
the  black-thorn  or  sloe. 

50-63. — This  passage  addressed  to  the  nymphs  has 
been  shown  to  be  imitated  from  Theocritus  (Idyls  i )  and 
Vergil  (Eclogues  x). 

52. — steep.  Milton  doubtless  had  in  mind  some 
mountain  on  the  coast  of  Wales  near  the  spot  where 
King  was  drowned. 


NOTES— LYCIDAS  149 

53. — bards.  In  calling  the  Druids  bards,  Milton  has  in 
mind  the  fact  that  they  were  the  minstrels  as  well  as  the 
priests  of  the  Celts. 

54. — Mona:  the  Latin  name  for  the  island  of  Angelsey, 
off  the  Welsh  coast. 

55. — Deva:  the  river  Dee,  which  flows  along  the 
boundary  of  Wales  into  the  Irish  Sea.  wizard:  with  super- 
natural associations.  The  origin  of  these  associations  is 
diversely  explained.  "The  river  was  supposed  to  be  a 
haunt  of  magicians,  and  was  so  described  by  Spenser  and" 
Drayton' '  (T.).  "It  was  supposed  to  foretell,  by  changing 
its  course,  good  or  ill  events  for  England  and  Wales,  of 
which  it  forms  the  boundary"  (V.).  There  is^no  reason 
why  Milton  should  not  have  had  both  points  in  mind.  * 

56.— fondly:  foolishly.   Cf.  II  Pens. ,  ver.  6  and  note. 

58. — Calliope:  the  muse"  of  epic  poetry,  and  mythical 
mother  of  Orpheus. 

59. — enchanting:  in  the  literal  sense  of  using  enchant- 
ments, viz.,  his  music. 

61. — On  the  loss  of  Eurydice,  Orpheus  so  disdained 
all  other  women  that  he  enraged  the  Thracian  women, 
who  tore  him  to  pieces.  His  head  was  thrown  into  the 
river  Hebrus,  and  borne  to  the  island  of  Lesbos,  where  it 
was  buried.  See  note  on  L'AIL,  ver.  145-50.  rout:  an 
unruly  band. 

64. — what  boots  it:  what  good  is  it? 

66: — shepherd's  trade:  as  generally  in  pastoral  poetry, 
this  figure  stands  for  the  writing  of  verse,  meditate:  e^l- 
tivate,  practise.  Cf.  Comus,  ver.  547  and  note,  thankless^ 
The  epithet  is  probably  meant  to  imply  not  so  much  that 
the  Muse  is  ungrateful  as  that  her  service  brings  no 
profit  from  the  world. 

67. — use:  are  accustomed  to  do. 

67-70. — These  lines  have  usually  been  interpreted  as 
referring  to  the  amatory  poetry  of  the  Cavalier  lyrists 


150  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

such  as  Herrick.  But  if  the  contrast  with  ver.  66  be  held 
to  strictly,  does  it  not  rather  mean  the  abandonment  of 
poetry  altogether  for  the  life  of  pleasure— of  the  Cavalier 
if  you  like?  Amaryllis  and  Necera  are  stoek  names  for  the 
heroines  of  classical  love  poetry. 

70. — clear.  The  word  here  may  be  taken  as  combining 
the  senses  of  "pure,"  "unsullied,"  and  of  the  Lat.  clarus, 
illustrious. 

I  71.— The  weakness  which  is  the  last  to  be  overcome 
by  the  noble  mind. 

73. — guerdon:  recompense. 

75.— Fury.  Of  the  three  Fates,  Clotho  spun  the  thread 
of  life,  Lachesis  measured  the  lengths,  and  Atropos  cut 
them  off.  If  Atropos  is  meant  here,  as  seerns^  probable, 
Milton  uses  Fury  for  Fate.  Blind  Fury  expresses  more 
passionately  his  feeling  of  the  mad  unreason  of  such  a 
premature  cutting  off  as  is  the  subject  of  the  poem. 

76. — slits:  cuts  off.  In  this  sense  the  same  word  will 
serve  to  govern  praise. 

77. — Plicebus:  introduced  here  as  the  god  of  poetry0 
touched  .  .  .  ears.  "The  action  was  a  symbolical  way  of 
recalling  a  matter  to  a  person's  memory,  the  ear  being 
regarded  as  the  seat  of  memory"  (Conington,  quoted  by 
V.).  M.  interprets  trembling  ears  as  an  allusion  to  the 
popular  superstition  that  a  person's  ears  tingle  when 
people  are  speaking  of  him  in  his  absence.  Milton  thus, 
he  thinks,  shows  himself  conscious  of  the  applicability 
of  the  passage  on  Fame  to  himself. 

79,  80. — The  general  sense  seems  to  be  as  follows: — 
Fame  does  not  consist  in  the  showy  achievements  (=glister- 
ing  foil)  exhibited  (=set  off)  to  the  world,  nor  in  broad  ru- 
mor, foil:  gold  or  silver  leaf,  such  as  was  placed  under 
transparent  gems  to  increase  their  brilliance. 

82. — Jove:  God.  The  word  is  used  here  to  preserve 
the  consistency  of  the  classical  nomenclature. 


NOTES— LYCIDAS  151 

83. — lastly:  finally,  without  appeal. 

85. — The  lament  is  resumed  here,  after  the  digression 
on  fame.  Arethuse.  Arethusa  was  a  spring  in  the  island 
of  Ortygia  in  the  port  of  Syracuse  in  Sicily.  It  is  used 
here  in  allusion  to  the  Sicilian  school  of  pastoral  poets, 
Theocritus,  Bion,  and  Moschus. 

86. — Minclus:  the  stream  by  which  Vergil  was  born 
and  which  he  honoured  by  his  poetry.  It  flows  into  the 
Po  near  Mantua.  Here  it  is  used  in  allusion  to  Vergil's 
pastoral  poems.  vocal:  because  used  for  shepherds1 
pipes. 

87. — that  strain:  the  speech  of  Phoebus,  mood:  used 
technically  for  ' 'kind of  music." 

-88. — i.  e.,  I  go  on  playing  on  my  oaten  pipe,  or  resume 
my  pastoral  poem. 

89. — Herald:  Triton,  who  was  Neptune's  trumpeter. 

90. — came  .  . .  plea.  This  may  mean  either  (1)  came  to 
hold  a  court  of  inquiry  on  behalf  of  Neptune,  or  (2)  came 
in  defence  of  Neptune  (by  laying  the  blame  on  one  of  the 
minor  powers). 

9 1  .—felon:  because  presumably  guilty  of  the  death  of 
King. 

96. — Hippotades.  ^Eolus,  the  god  of  the  winds,  was  the 
son  of  Hippotes. 

99. — Panope,  one  of  the  sea-nymphs  called  nereids,  or 
daughters  of  Nereus  (hence  sisters). 

101. — eclipse.    Eclipses  were  regarded  as  of  ill-omen. 

103. — Camus:  the  god  of  the  river  Cam,  here  used  to 
represent  the  University,  footing  slow  may  refer  to  the 
sluggish  stream  of  the  Cam,  or  may  be  part  of  the  repre- 
sentation of  Camus  as  an  old  man. 

104. — hairy:  i.  e.y  with  river- weeds,  sedge:  a  coarse 
grass  that  grows  on  the  banks  of  rivers. 

105.— figures  dim:  faint  designs — taken  by  some  to  be 
symbolical  of  the  old  traditions  of  Cambridge. 


162  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

106.—  sanguine:  bloody  (the  literal  meaning).  The 
flower  is  the  hyacinth,  named  after  the  mythical  Spartan 
youth  Hyacinthus.  He  was  killed  by  a  quoit  thrown  by 
Apollo,  but  blown  aside  by  Zephyrus,  who  was  jealous  of 
the  youth's  love  for  Apollo.  From  his  blood  sprang  the 
nower,  and  on  its  petals  the  words,  Ai,  Ai  (alas,  alas!) 
were  supposed  to  be  traceable. 

107. — reft:  snatched  away,  pledge:  child  (a  transla- 
tion of  the  Lat.  pignus,  which  is  used  in  both  senses). 

I II. —pilot:  St.  Peter.  He  is  introduced  as  the 
.founder  of  the  Church,  in  which  King  had  intended  to 
take  orders.  The  belief  that  Peter  is  the  keeper  of  the 
keys  of  heaven  is  derived,  from  Matthew,  XVI,  19,  and 
the  tradition  of  the  number  has  grown  up  in  the  Church. 
The  difference  in  metal  and  function  is  due  to  Milton. 
amain:  with  force. 

112.—  mitred:  wearing  a  mitre,  as  a  dignitary  of  the 
Church,  bespoke:  used  simply  in  the  sense  of  "spoke." 
The  modern  use  is  restricted. 

1 14. — enow:  poetical  form  of  "enough." 

115. — "First,  those  who  creep  into  the  fold:   who  do 

not  care  for  office  or  name,  but  for  secret  influence 

Then  those  who  intrude,  (thrust,  that  is)  themselves  into 
the  fold,  who,  by  natural  insolence  of  heart,  and  stout 
eloquence  of  tongue,  and  fearlessly  perseverant  self-asser- 
tion, obtain  hearing  and  authority  with  the  common 
crowd.  Lastly,  those  who  climb,  who  by  labour  and 
learning,  both  stout  and  sound,  but  selfishly  exerted  in 
the  cause  of  their  own  ambition,  gain  high  dignities  and 
authorities,  and  become  'lords  over  the  heritage, 'though 
not  'ensamples  to  the  flock.'  " 

— Ruskin:  Sesame  and  Lilies ,  §  21. 

117. — shearers' feast:  i.  e.,  the  endowments  meant  for 
Vh'e  working  clergy. 

118.— worthy  bidden  guest:  cf.  Matthew,  XXII,  1-9. 


NOTES— LYCIDA&  153 

119.— blind  mouths:  "A  'Bishop'  means  'a  person  who 
sees.'  A  'Pastor'  means  'a  person  who  feeds.'  The  most 
unbishoply  character  a  man  can  have  is  therefore  to  be 
Blind.  The  most  unpastoral  is,  instead  of  feeding,  to 
want  to  be  fed,— to  be  a  Mouth." 

— Sesame  and  Lilies,  $  22. 

120,  1. — The  pastoral  imagery  familiar  in  connection 
with  the  Church  is  here  united  with  that  of  the  conven- 
tional literary  type  which  the  poem  follows  in  general. 

122. —  What  recks^..  .  sped:  What  does  it  matter  to 
them?  What  iSSBrfrtley  want?  They  have  succeeded 
in  getting  what  they  were  after,  the  material  rewards  of 
the  priesthood. 

123. — list:  please.  The  implication  is  that  they 
preached  only  when  they  felt  inclined,  lean:  containing 
no  spiritual  nourishment,  flashy:  watery,  insipid,  trashy. 

124. — scrannel:  said  to  be  a  Lancashire  dialect  word 
meaning  "thin,"  "meagre."  The  sound  of  the  word  and 
the  context  go  far  to  give  us  Milton's  idea.  Cf.  Scottish, 
scran,  to  scrape  together. 

126. — rank:  poisonous.  The  suggestion  is  that  the 
careless  shepherds  let  the  sheep  wander  into  pestilential 
marshes.  Symbolically,  it  refers  to  the  risk  of  heresy. 
draw:  inhale. 

128. — grim  wolf:  the  church  of  Rome,  privy:  referring 
to  the  secret  proselytizing  then  going  on. 

130. — two-handed  engine.  engine= instrument.  The 
reference  here  is  obscure.  A  favorite  explanation  is  that 
it  is  to  "the  axellaid  unto  the  root  of  the  tree"  (Matthew  III, 
10);  M.  sees  a  reference  to  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament 
V.  to  the  sword  of  Justice.  Perhaps  Milton  meant  noth 
ing  more  than  that  an  effective  remedy  was  at  the  door 
i.  e.t  close  at  hand. 

132. — Alpheus.  Just  as  after  the  digression  on  Fame  h 
resumed  by  calling  on  Arethusa  as  a  symbol  of  pastora 


154  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

poetry,  so  after  this  digression  on  the  state  of  the 
Church  he  calls  on  Alpheus,  the  lover  of  Arethusa.  The 
dread  voice  is,  of  course,  St.  Peter's,  and  the  shrinking  of 
the  streams  represents  the  checking  of  the  flow  of  pastor- 
al verse. 

133. — Sicilian  muse.    Cf.  note  on  ver.  85. 

136. — use:  dwell,  have  their  haunts. 

138. — swart  star:  i.  e.y  the  star  that  makes  things  swart 
or  dark  with  scorching,  the  Dog-star,  Sirius.  sparely:  but 
little,  seldom. 

139. — quaint  enamelled  eyes:  curiously  colored  flowers. 

141.— purple:  imperative  of  the  verb.  Purple  is  used 
in  a  general  sense,  ''to  make  richly  colored." 

142. — rathe:  early.  Used  now  only  in  the  compara- 
tive, forsaken.  This  is  usually  interpreted  as  "un wed- 
ded," partly  because  Milton  first  wrote  "unwedded"  in 
obvious  reminiscence  of  Shakspere's 

Pale  primroses 

That  die  unmarried,  ere  they  can  behold 
Bright  Phoebus  in  his  strength. 

But  perhaps  he  was  thinking  of  the  loneliness  of  the 
primrose,  blooming  in  retired  places,  and  so  early  that 
tew  other  flowers  are  out. 

49. — (amaranthus.      The    name    is    Greek,    meaning  i 
"never-fading." 

151. — laureate  hearse,    hearse  has  had  a  great  variety  of    ^ 
meanings,  but  here  it  is  understood  to  signify  the  wood- 
en frame  on  which  the  coffin  rested.      Memorial  stanzas   / 
were  often  fastened  to  this,  hence  laureate  refers  to  Lycidas 
and  the  other  verses  written  in  honor  of  King. 

153, 4. — Milton  recalls  the  fact  that  he  has  been  play- 
ing with  the  idea  that  they  really  had  the  body  of  King 
for  burial,  when  in  fact  it  was  lost  in  the  sea.  surmise: 
fancy. 

154.— The  series  of  clauses  beginning  at  whilst  are  all 
subordinate  to  the  clause  iiuver.  153. 


NOTES— LYCIDA8  155 

156. — Hebrides:  islands  off  the  west  coast  of  Scotland. 

158. — monstrous:  inhabited  by  monsters. 

159.— moist  vows:  tearful  vows. 

160.— -fable  of  Bellerus:  i.  e.,  Land's  End,  in  the  ex- 
treme southwest  of  England.  The  Latin  name  for  this 
cape  was  BeSerium,  and  this  word  Milton  derives  from 
an  imaginary  Bellerus. 

161 . — guarded  mount:  St.  Michael's  Mount  in  Cornwall, 
on  which  was  a  craggy  seat  where  the  Archangel  was 
fabled  to  appear  at  times:  hence  great  vision.  There  are 
ruins  of  a  fortress  on  the  hill,  but  the  epithet  guarded  is 
more  likely  to  refer  to  the  protection  of  the  angel. 

162. — Namancos  and  Bayona  are  both  on  the  coast  of 
Spain  near  Cape  Finisterre,  the  direction  in  which  the 
vision  of  the  Archangel  was  fabled  to  have  looked  over 
the  sea. 

163. — ruth:  pity.  Professor  Corson  ingeniously  sug- 
gests that  in  this  line  we  have  a  further  reference  to  the 
ecclesiastical  situation.  In  making  the  Archangel 
Michael,  the  guardian  of  the  Church,  look  to  wards  Spain, 
the  stronghold  of  Catholicism,  Milton,  he  thinks,  meant 
to  symbolize  the  Archangel's  watchfulness  against 
foreign  danger.  But  now  that  the  Church  is  exposed  to 
danger  from  within,  he  calls  on  him  to  Look  homeward, 
Angel,  now,  and  melt  with  ruth. 

164.— -dolphins:  in  allusion  to  the  story  of  Arion,  a 
Greek  poet  and  musician.  Once,  when  he  was  at  sea, 
the  crew  determined  to  kill  him  for  his  wealth,  but  he 
obtained  permission  to  sing  to  his  lyre  for  the  last  time* 
and  then  jump  into  the  sea.  His  music  brought  a  num- 
ber of  dolphins  round  the  ship,  and  when  he  jumped 
overboard  they  bore  him  safe  to  land,  where  he  had  the 
sailors  punished. 

168. — day-star:  the  sun. 


156  MILTON'S  MINOR  POEMS 

170. — tricks:  dresses,  ore:  here  used  for  4 'sparkling 
metal."  Milton  probably  thought  of  gold.  "No  doubt, 
this  was  due  to  a  mistaken  belief  that  ore=aurum"  (V.). 

175. — nectar:  used  to  keep  up  the  imagery  of  pagan 
mythology,  though  in  a  description  of  the  Christian 
heaven,  oozy:  moist,  referring  to  the  manner  of  his 
death. 

176. — unexpressive:  inexpressible,  nuptial  song.  Cf. 
Revelation,  XIX,  9,  "Blessed  are  they  which  are  bidden 
to  the  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb." 

186-193.— The  last  eight  lines  form  a  stanza  (in  ottava 
rima,  as  has  been  pointed  out)  apart,  in  which  the  poet 
no  longer  sings  as  a  shepherd,  but  in  a  detached  way 
describes  the  speaker  of  the  foregoing. 

186. — uncouth:  literally,  "unknown,"  here  "rough," 
"rustic." 

188.—  stops:  the  holes  in  a  wind  instrument,  quills. 
Skeat  says  that  this  sense  of  "reed"  is  probably  older 
than  that  of  "feather." 

189.— Doric.  The  Sicilian  pastoral  poets  wrote  in  the 
Doric  dialect. 

190. — Had  lengthened  out  the  shadows  of  the  hills, 

192. — twitched:  gathered  round  him. 


WORD  INDEX 


I— I/ALLEGRO.     II— IL  PENSEROSO.     Ill— COMUS.       IV— LYCIDAS 


Acheron,  in,  604. 
Adonis,  in,  999. 
^Eolus,  iv,  96  n. 
affects,  in,  386. 
Aganippe,  iv,  15  n, 
airy  shell,  in,  231. 
Algarsife,  n,  111. 
allay,  in,  96. 
Allegro,  i,  Title. 
Alpheus,  iv,  132. 
amain,  iv,  111. 
amaranthus,  iv,  149. 
Amaryllis,  iv,  68. 
amazed,  in,  565. 
amber-dropping,  in,  863. 
ambrosial,  in,  16,  838  n. 
amiss,  in,  177. 
Amphitrite,  in,  921. 
Anchises,  in,  923. 
ancient,  in,  314. 
Angel,  iv,  163. 
antique,  11,  158. 
Arcady,  in,  341. 
Arethuse,  iv,  85,  132  n. 
Arion,  iv,  164  n. 
Ariosto,  11,  116  n. 
Ashtaroth,  in,  1002  n. 
aspects,  in,  694. 
asphodil,  in,  838. 
assays,  in,  972. 
Assyrian,  in,  1002. 
at  the  door,  iv,  130. 
attendance,  in,  315. 
Attic,  n,  124. 
Aurora,  i,  19. 
azurn,  in,  893. 


Bacchus,  i,  16;  in,  46. 
bandite,  in,  426. 
bards,  iv,  53. 
battening,  iv,  29. 
Bayona,  iv,  162. 
beads,  in,  391. 
Bear,  n,  87;  in,  341  n. 
becks,  i,  28. 
begin,  in,  460. 
Bellerus,  iv,  160. 
bellman,  n,  83. 
benison,  in,  332. 
bespake,  iv,  112. 
besprent,  in,  542. 
bested,  11,  3. 
blank,  in,  452. 
blasts,  in,  845. 
blear,  in,  155. 
blind  mouths,  iv,  119. 
blue-haired,  in,  29. 
bolt,  in,  760. 
boots,  iv,  64. 
bosky,  in,  313. 
bosomed,  i,  78. 
bosoms,  in,  368. 
bottom  glade,  in,  532. 
bourn,  in,  313. 
bout,  i,  139. 
bowed,  in,  1015. 
bower,  i,  87;  in,  45. 
brakes,  in,  147. 
Bridgewater,  Earl  of,  ins 

31  n. 

brinded,  in,  443. 
brooding,  i,  6. 
brow,  in,  532. 


157 


158  WORD  INDEX 

I— L' ALLEGRO.      II— IL  PENSEBOSO,      III— COMUS. 


IV— LTCIDAS. 


brown,  11,  134;  iv,  2. 
Brute,  in,  828. 
budge,  in,  707. 
but,  in,  714. 
buxom,  i,  24. 

cabined,  in,  140. 
called,  in,  131. 
Calliope,  iv,  58  n. 
Callisto,  in,  341  n. 
Camball,  n,  111. 
Cambuscan,  n,  110. 
Camus,  iv,  103. 
Canace,  n,  112. 
canker,iv,  45. 
canon  laws,  in,  808. 
Carpathian,  in,  872. 
cassia,  in,  991. 
cast,  n,  43;  in,  360. 
casts,  in,  225. 
Celtic,  in,  60. 
centre,  in,  382. 
Cephalus,  n,  124  n. 
Cerberus,  i,  2. 
chamber,  in,  101. 
chance,  in,  508. 
change,  in,  10. 
charactered,  in,  530, 
Chastity,  in,  215. 
charnel,  in,  471. 
Charybdis,  in,  259. 
chequered,  i,  96. 
Cherub,  n,  54. 
chimeras,  in,  517. 
chimney,  i,  111. 
Cimmerian,  i,  10. 
tJirce,  in,  77  n. 
civil-suited,  n,  122. 
clear,  iv,  70. 
climb,  iv,  115. 
cloister,  n,  156. 
close,  in,  548. 


cock,  i,  49. 
commercing,  n,  39. 
compels,  iv,  7. 
Comus,  in,  Title, 
condition,  in,  685. 
consent,  11,  95. 
consort,  n,  145. 
constraint,  iv,  6. 
Contemplation,  11,  54. 
counterfeit,  n,  80. 
converse,  in,  459. 
Corydon,  i,  83. 
cotes,  in,  344. 
Cotytto,  in,  129. 
course,  in,  159. 
courtesy,  in,  322. 
covert,  in,  945. 
coy,  in,  737;  iv,  18. 
cozened,  in,  737. 
cranks,  i,  27. 
creep,  iv,  115. 
crofts,  m, -531. 
crop,  i,  113. 
crowned,  in,  934. 
crude,  in,  480;  iv,  3. 
Cupid,  HI,  1004. 
curfew,  11,  74;  in,  435. 
curious,  in,  714. 
Cynic,  m,  708. 
cynosure,  i,  80;  m,  342. 
Cynthia,  n,  59. 
cypress,  n,  35. 

dally,  iv,  153. 
Damoetas,  iv,  36. 
Daphne,  m,  661. 
dapper,  m,  118. 
dashed,  in,  451. 
Daughter   of   the   Sphere. 

in,  241. 

day-star,  iv,  168. 
dear,  iv,  6. 


WORD   INDEX  159 

I— [/ALLEGRO.     II— IL  PBNSBBOSO.      Ill— COMUS.      IV— LTCLDAB. 


debonair,  i,  24. 
decent,  n,  36. 
Dee,  iv,  55  n. 
deep,  in,  733. 
demons,  n,  93. 
Deva,  iv,  55. 
dight,  i,  62;  n,  159. 
dingle,  in,  312. 
Diodati,  in,  620  n. 
discovers,  in,  1. 
disinherit,  in,  334. 
displaced,  in,  560. 
dolphins,  iv,  164. 
Doric,  iv,  189. 
dragon  womb,  in,  131. 
dragon-yoke,  n,  59. 
draw,  iv,  126. 
dread  voice,  iv,  132. 
dream,  n,  147. 
drouth,  in,  66. 
drove,  iv,  27. 
drowsy-flighted,  in,  553. 
Druids,  iv,  53. 
Dryades,  in,  964. 
Du  Bartas,  i,  45-8  n. 
due,  11,  155;  in,  12;  iv,  7. 

Echo,  in,  230,  237  n. 
eclipses,  iv,  101. 
eglantine,  i,  48. 
element,  m,  299. 
Elysian,  i,  147. 
Elysium,  in,  257. 
embowed,  n,  157. 
emprise,  m,  610. 
enamelled,  iv,  139. 
enchanting,  iv,  59. 
engaged,  m,  193. 
engine,  iv,  130. 
enow,  iv,  114. 
Erebus,  in,  804. 
esteemed,  in,  634. 


Ethiop  queen,  n,  19. 
Euphrosyne,  i,  12. 
^Eurydice,  i,  150;  iv,  61  n. 
express,  in,  69. 
extreme,  in,  273. 
eyes,  iv,  139. 

Faerie  Queene,  11,  120  n. 

fairly,  m,  168. 

faith,  in,  88. 

fall,  in,  251. 

fallows,  i,  71. 

Fancy,  i,  133. 

fast,  n,  44. 

Fates,  iv,  75  n. 

felon,  iv,  91. 

figures,  iv,  105. 

flashy,  iv,  123. 

flowery-kirtled,  m,254. 

foil,  iv,  79. 

fold,  in,  93. 

fond,  n,  6;  in,  67. 

fondly,  iv,  56. 

footing,  iv,  103. 

forestalling,  in,  285. 

forsaken,  iv,  142. 

foundation,  in,  808. 

Friar's  lantern,  i,  104;  in. 

432  n. 

frieze,  m,  722. 
frolic,  in,  59. 
frounced,  n,  123. 
Furies,  in,  641. 
Fury,  iv,  75. 

gadding,  iv,  40. 
garish,  11,  141. 
gaudy  shapes,  iiy  6. 
gear,  m,  167. 
Genius,  n,  154. 
ghost,  in,  434. 
girt,  in,  214. 


160  WORD  INDEX 

I— L' ALLEGRO.     II— IL  PENSEROSO.      Ill— COMUS.      IV— LYCIDAS. 


Glaucus,  in,  874. 
glistering,  in,  219;  iv,  79. 
glozing,  in,  161. 
glutinous,  in,  917. 
goblin,  i,  105. 
gods,  in,  11. 
goes  about,  in,  658. 
Gorgon,  in,  447. 
Graces,  i,  15. 
grain,  n,  33;  in,  750. 
granges,  in,  175. 
gratulate,  in,  949. 
grey-fly,  iv,  28. 
grim  wolf,  iv,  128. 
guarded  mount,  iv,  161. 
guerdon,  iv,  73. 

habits,  in,  157. 
Haemony,  in,  638. 
hairy,  11,  169;  iv,  104. 
hall,  in,  45. 
happy  trial,  in,  592. 
harmony,  i,  144. 
Harpies,  in,  605. 
head,  in,  355. 
hearse,  iv,  151. 
heat,  in,  358. 
heaven's  descent,  iv,  31. 
Hebe,  i,  29;  in,  290, 
Hebrides,  iv,  156. 
Hebrus,  iv,  63. 
Hecate,  in,  135,  535. 
hedger,  in,  293. 
heed,  i,  141. 
helping,  in,  845. 
Herald  of  the  Sea,  iv,  89. 
Hermes,  n,  88. 
Herrick,  11,  83  n. 
Hesperus,  in,  93   n,  982; 

iv,  30  n. 

Hesperian  tree,  in,  393.    • 
hinds,  in,  174. 


Hippotades,  iv,  96. 
his,  in,  248,  673. 
hist,  11,  55. 
hit,  11,  14;  in,  286. 
homefelt,  in,  262. 
horror,  in,  38. 
huddling,  in,  495. 
hunger,  in,  358. 
hutched,  in,  719. 
Hyacinthus,  iv,  106  n. 
Hydras,  in,  605. 
Hymen,  i,  125. 

Iberian,  in,  6Q. 
Ida,  n,  29. 
if,  in,  419. 

II  Penseroso,  n,  Title, 
ill  is  lost,  in,  271. 
ill-greeting,  in,  406. 
ill-managed,  in,  172. 
imbodies,  in,  468. 
imbrutes,  in,  468. 
immured,  in,  521. 
imports,  in,  287. 
Indian  steep,  in,  139. 
infamous,  in,  424. 
infer,  in,  408. 
infirmity,  iv,  71. 
influence,  I,  122. 
inform,  in,  180. 
innumerous,  in,  349. 
insphered,  in,  3. 
intrude,  iv,  115. 
inured,  in,  735. 
Iris,  in,  83,  992. 
iron  stakes,  in,  491. 
ivy,  in,  55;  iv,  2. 

Jonson,  i,  132;  in,  Title  n. 
Jove,  n,  30;  in,  20;  iv,  82. 
Jove's  altar,  n,  48. 
Joy,  m,  1011, 


WORD   INDEX  161 

I— L' ALLEGRO.      II— IL  PENSEROSO.   '  III— COMUB.      IV— LYOIDAS. 


julep,  in,  672. 
junkets,  i,  102. 

kerchieft,  n,  125. 
knows  to  still,  in,  87. 
knew  to  sing,  iv,  10. 

laboured, in,  291. 
lackey,  in,  455. 
L 'Allegro,  i.     Title, 
landskip,  i,  70. 
lantern  (Friar's),  i,  104. 
lark,  i,  41. 
lastly,  iv,  83. 
laureate,  iv,  151. 
laurels,  iv,  1. 
lavers,  in,  838. 
Lawes,  in,  86  n,  495  n. 
lawn,  n,  35. 
lean,  iv,  123. 
Leucothea,  in,  875. 
lies,  i,  79. 
Ligea,  in,  880. 
like,  in,  634. 
likeliest,  in,  90. 
liquorish,  in,  700. 
list,  iv,  123. 
listed,  in,  49. 
liveries,  i,  62. 
Locrine,  in,  922. 
loose,  in,  174. 
low-roosted,  in,  317. 
lubber,  i,  110. 
lucky,  iv,  20. 
Lycjdas,  iv,  Title. 
Lydian,  i,  136. 

Mab,  i,  102. 
madrigal,  m,  495. 
mantling,  in,  294. 
mask,  i,  128. 
massy-proof,  n,  158. 


Meander,  in,  232. 
meant,  in,  591. 
measure,  in,  144. 
meditate,  in,  547;  iv,  66. 
meeting,  i,  138. 
Melancholy,  i,  1. 
Meliboeus,  m,  822. 
Melicertes,  in,  876  n. 
mellowing,  iv,  5. 
Memnon,  n,  18. 
Mercury,  in,  963. 
messes,  i,  85. 
mickle,  m,  31. 
Mincius,  iv,  86. 
Minerva,  m,  448. 
mintage,  in,  529. 
minute-drops,  n,  130. 
Mirth,  i,  13. 
mitred,  iv,  112. 
moist  vows,  iv,  159. 
Moly,  in,  636. 
Mona,  iv,  54. 
monody,  iv,  Title, 
monstrous,  m,  533;  iv,  158 
monumental,  11,  135. 
morning  roses,  i,  '22  n. 
morrice,  m,  116. 
mortal  change,  in,  10. 
mould,  in,  17. 
mountain-nymph,  i,  36. 
murmurs,  m,  526. 
Musseus,  n,  104. 
Muse,  iv,  19. 
Muses,  n,  47. 
myrtles,  iv,  2. 

Namancos,  iv,  162. 
Narcissus,  m,  237. 
nard,  in,  991. 
navel,  in,  520. 
near-ushering,  in,  279. 
Neaera,  iv,  69. 


162  WURD  INDEX 

I— I/ALLEGRO.     II— IL  PENSEROSO.      Ill— COMUB.      IV— LYCIDAS. 


nectar,  iv,  175. 
nectared,  in,  479,  838. 
Nepenthes,  in,  675. 
Neptune,  in,  18;  iv,  90. 
Nereus,  in,  835,  871. 
nether  Jove,  in,  20. 
next,  in,  501. 
nice,  in,  139. 
night-foundered,  in,  483. 
nightly,  n,  84. 
night-raven,  I,  7. 
nuptial  song,  iv,  176. 
Nymphs,  iv,  50. 

oat,  iv,  88. 

Oceanus,  in,  868. 

of,  n,  171. 

oozy,  iv,  175. 

ore,  iv,  170. 

orient,  in,  65. 

Orpheus,  i,  145;  n,  105; 

iv,  58. 

osier,  in,  891. 
ounce,  in,  71. 
over-exquisite,  in,  359. 

Palaemon,  in,  876  n. 
pale,  n,  156. 
pall,  n,  98. 
pallet,  in,  318. 
palmer,  in,  189. 
Pan,  in,  176. 
Panope,  iv,  99. 
Parley,  in,  241. 
Parthenope,  in,  879. 
pastoral  imagery,  iv,120n. 
pastoral  reed,  HI,  345. 
path  to  Heaven,  in,  303. 
pearled,  HI,  834. 
Peer,  HI,  31;  iv,  9 
Pelops'  line,  n,  99. 


Penseroso,  n,  Title, 
pensioners,  n,  10. 
perfect,  in,  203. 
period,  in,  585. 
perplexed,  in,  37. 
pert,  HI,  118. 
pestered,  in,  7. 
Philomel,  n,  56. 
Phcebus,  iv,  77. 
Phyllis,  i,  86. 
pied,  i,  75. 
Pieria,  iv,  15  n. 
pillared,  in,  598. 
Pilot,  iv,  109. 
pinched,  i,  103. 
pinfold,  HI,  7. 
plat,  11,  73. 

Plato,  n,  89;  in,  463-75  n 
pledge,  iv,  107. 
plight,  n,  57;  in,  372. 
plighted,  in,  301. 
Pluto,  i,  149;  n,  107;  in, 

20  n. 

port,  in,  297. 
praise,  iv,  76. 
pranked,  in,  759. 
presented,  in,  Title, 
presentments,  in,  156. 
prevent,  in,  573. 
privy,  iv,  128. 
profaner,  11,  140. 
prologue,  in,  1  n. 
property,  in,  469. 
Proteus,  in,  872  n. 
Psyche,  in,  1005. 
purchase,  HI,  607. 
purfled,  in,  995. 
purple,  iv,  141. 
pursed,  HI,  642, 

quaint  habits,  in,  157 
quarters,  in,  29. 


WORD    INDEX  163 

I— L' ALLEGRO.      II— IL  PENSEROSO.      Ill— COMUS.      IV— LTCIDAS 


quest,  in,  321. 
quills,  iv,  188. 
quips,  i,  27. 
quire,  in,  112. 

rank,  iv,  126. 

rapt,  II,  40. 

rathe,  iv,  142. 

rebeck,  I,  94. 

recks,  in,  404;  iv,  122. 

reft,  iv,  107. 

relation,  in,  617. 

removed,  n,  78. 

resort,  in,  379. 

resounding  grace,  in,  243. 

reversed,  in,  816. 

rhyme,  iv,  11. 

rife,  in,  203. 

ritual,  11,  161-6  n. 

root-bound,  in,  662. 

roses,  i,  22. 

rosy  twine,  in,  105. 

round,  in,  144,  935. 

rouse,  in,  318. 

rout,  in,  92;  rv,  61. 

rule,  in,  340. 

rush  candle,  in,  338. 

ruth,  iv,  163. 

Sabrina,  in,  826. 
sad,  11,  43;  in,  189. 
sadly,  in,  509. 
saffron,  i,  126. 
sager,  i,  17. 
sampler,  in,  751. 
sanguine,  iv,  106. 
saws,  in,  110. 
sate,  in,  714. 
Saturn,  11,  24;  in,  805. 
Saturn's  reign,  n,  25. 
Satyrs,  iv,  34. 
sceptered.  n*  98* 


scrannel,  iv,  124, 
scrip,  in,  626. 
Scylla,  in,  257. 
Sea-Nymphs,  .11,  21. 
secure,  i,  91. 
sedge,  iv,  104. 
see  to,  in,  620. 
seek,  in,  366. 
seeks  to,  in,  376. 
self-same  hill,  iv,  23. 
sensualty,  in,  474. 
sere,  iv,  2. 

set  off,  in,  801;  iv,  80. 
several,  in,  25. 
Severn,  in,  825. 
Shakspere,  i,  133. 
shatter,  iv,  5. 
shearers'  feast,  iv,  117. 
shepherd's  trade,  iv,  65. 
shift,  in,  273. 
shifts,  m,  617. 
shroud,  in,  316. 
shrouds,  in,  147. 
Sicilian  Muse,  iv,  133. 
simples,  in,  627. 
single,  in,  204,  369. 
Sirens,  iir,  253. 
Sisters,  iv,  15. 
slits,  iv,  76. 
slope,  in,  98. 
sock,  i,  132. 
sorry,  in,  750. 
sounds,  in,  115. 
sovran,  in,  639. 
sparely,  iv,  138. 
spell,  n,  170. 
Spenser,  11,  116  n. 
spets,  in,  132. 
sphere,  in,  241.    ' 
spicy,  i,  100. 
spruce,  in,  985. 
spongy,  in,  154. 


164  WORD  INDEX 

I— L  ALLEQRO.     II— IL  PENSBROSO.      Ill— GOMUS.      IV— LYCIDA& 


square,  in,  329. 
squint,  Hi,  413. 
St.  Peter,  iv,  111  n. 
stabled,  in,  534. 
stage,  n,  102. 
stakes,  in,  491. 
Star,  in,  93;  iv,  30. 
Star  of  Arcady,  in,  341. 
starred,  n,  19. 
starry,  in,  112. 
state,  i,  60;  11,  37;  in,  35 
stead,  in,  611. 
stealth,  in,  503. 
steep,  in,  97;  iv,  52. 
still,  n,  41,  127;  in,  56G. 
Stoic,  in,  707. 
stole,  11,  35. 
stop,  in,  552. 
stops,  iv,  188. 
store,  I,  121. 
storied,  n,  159;  ill,  516. 
strain,  iv,  87. 
stray,  in,  315. 
stream,  in,  97. 
stretched,  iv,  190. 
strong-siding,  in,  212. 
strook,  in,  301.  * 
Stygian,  i,  3;  111,  132. 
surmise,  iv,  153. 
swart,  in,  436;  iv,  138. 
swilled,  in,  178. 
swinked,  ill,  293. 
Sylvan,  11,  134;  in,  268. 

taint-worm,  iv,  46. 
tale,  i,  67. 
Tasso,  n,  116  n. 
tear,  iv9  14. 
tease,  in,  751. 
teeming,  in,  175. 
temperance,  11,  45-8  n. 
tempered,  iv,  33,, 


Tethys,  in,  870. 
thankless,  iv,  66. 
thatched  pallet,  in,  318. 
Thebes,  n,  99. 
Thestylis,  i,  88. 
Thetis,  in,  877. 
they  below,  in,  734. 
those,  in,  2. 
thrice-great,  n,  88. 
Thyrsis,  i,  83;  in,  494. 
tinsel-slippered,  in,  877. 
to,  in,  506. 
to  seek,  in,  366. 
took,  in,  558. 
to-ruffled,  in,  380. 
touched . .  .ears,  iv,  77. 
tourneys,  n,  118. 
toy,  in,  502. 
trace,  in,  423. 
trains,  in,  151. 
transformed,  in,  48. 
tricked,  n,  123. 
tricks,  iv,  170. 
Triton,  in,  873;  iv,  89  n 
triumphs,  I,  120. 
Troy,  n,  100. 
turkis,  in,  894. 
Tuscan,  in,  48. 
twine,  in,  105. 
twitched,  iv,  192. 
two-handed,  iv,  130. 
Tyrian,  in,  342. 
Tyrrhene,  in,  49. 

ugly,  in,  695. 
unadorned,  in,  23. 
unblenched,  in,  430. 
uncouth,  i,  5;  iv,  186. 
unenchantedj  in,  395. 
unexempt,  in,  685. 
UD  expressive,  iv,  176. 
unharboured,  in,  423, 


WORD  INDEX  165 

I— L'  ALLEGRO.     II— IL  PENBBROSO.      Ill— COMUS.      iV— LYcn>i* 


unlaid,  nr,  434. 
unless,  in,  267. 
unowned,  ill,  407. 
unprincipled,  in,  367. 
unreproved,  i,  40. 
unseen,  i,  57;  n,  65. 
unsphere,  II,  88. 
unsunned,  in,  398. 
unthread,  in,  614. 
unweeting,  in,  539. 
upland,  i,  92. 
urchin,  in,  845. 
use,  iv,  67,  136. 
ushered,  11,  127, 

Vergil,  iv,  86  n. 
Vesta,  n,  23. 
viewless,  in,  92. 
virtue,  in,  165. 
virtuous,  n,  113;  in,  165n. 
Vision,  iv,  161. 
vizored,  in,  698. 
vocal,  in,  247;  iv,  86 
votarist,  in,  189. 

wain,  in,  190. 
wakes,  in,  121. 
waking,  in,  263. 
Wales,  in,  30  n, 
wandering  labours,    Ul, 
1006. 


wanton,  i,  27,  141. 
warranted,  in,  327. 
wassaiiers,  in,  179. 
wattled,  in,  344. 
weaker,  n,  15,  140  n. 
weanling,  iv,  46. 
weeds,  i,  120;  m,  16,  84, 

390. 

welkin,  in,  1015. 
well,  in,  210. 
Welsh,  in,  33  n. 
welter,  iv,  13. 
what  time,  in,  291;  iv,  28 
whilst,  iv,  154. 
white-thorn,  iv,  48. 
wicker  hole,  in,  338. 
wiles,  i,  27. 
wind,  in,  163. 
window,  i,  46. 
wink  on,  in,  401. 
with,  n,  88. 
wizard,  in,  872;  iv,  55. 
wont'st,  in,  332. 
worthy  bidden,  iv,  11& 

yclept,  I,  12. 

yet  once  more,  iv,  1. 

Youth,  m,  1011. 

Zephyr,  I,  19,  " 


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